Quiscalus

The avian genus Quiscalus contains seven of the 11 species of grackles, gregarious passerine birds in the icterid family. They are native to North and South America.

Quiscalus
Common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Icteridae
Genus: Quiscalus
Vieillot, 1816
Species
  • Quiscalus major
  • Quiscalus quiscula
  • Quiscalus mexicanus
  • Quiscalus nicaraguensis
  • Quiscalus niger
  • Quiscalus lugubris
  • Quiscalus palustris (extinct)

The genus was named and described by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816.[1] The type species was subsequently designated as the common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.[2][3] The genus name comes from the specific name Gracula quiscula coined by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus for the common grackle.[4] From where Linnaeus obtained the word is uncertain, but it may come from the Carib word quisqueya, meaning "mother of all lands", for the island of Hispaniola.[5]

The genus contains six extant species and one extinct species:[6]

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Quiscalus majorBoat-tailed grackleFlorida and the coastal Southeastern United States
Quiscalus quisculaCommon grackleNorth America
Quiscalus mexicanusGreat-tailed gracklenorthwestern Venezuela and western Colombia and Ecuador in the south to Minnesota in the north, to Oregon, Idaho, and California in the west, to Florida in the east, with vagrants occurring as far north as southern Canada
†Quiscalus palustris Slender-billed grackle endemic of central Mexico, namely Valley of Mexico and Toluca Valley (extinct around 1910)
Quiscalus nicaraguensisNicaraguan grackleNicaragua and northernmost Costa Rica
Quiscalus nigerGreater Antillean gracklethe Greater Antilles
Quiscalus lugubrisCarib grackleColombia east to Venezuela and northeastern Brazil

References
  1. Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 36.
  2. Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 41.
  3. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 187.
  4. Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Volume 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 109.
  5. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 328–329. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  6. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Oropendolas, orioles, blackbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 September 2019.


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