Spinus (genus)
Spinus is a genus of passerine birds in the finch family. It contains the North and South American siskins and goldfinches, as well as two Old World species. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek spínos, a name for a now-unidentifiable bird.
All of the species in the genus, except for the Tibetan serin, were formerly included in the genus Carduelis. They were moved to the resurrected genus Spinus based on phylogenetic studies of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. The Tibetan serin was formerly placed in the genus Serinus. The Eurasian siskin and the Tibetan serin are the only species from the Old World included in the group.
The genus Spinus was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch with the Eurasian siskin as the type species.
Species
The genus contains 20 species:| Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
| Tibetan serin | Spinus thibetanus | Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, and Nepal. | |
| American goldfinch | Spinus tristis | mid-Alberta to North Carolina during the breeding season, and from just south of the Canada–United States border to Mexico during the winter | |
| Lawrence's goldfinch | Spinus lawrencei | California and Baja California and winters in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico | |
| Lesser goldfinch | Spinus psaltria | southwestern United States to Venezuela and Peru | |
| Eurasian siskin | Spinus spinus | Eurasia and the north of Africa | |
| Antillean siskin | Spinus dominicensis | Haiti and the Dominican Republic | |
| Pine siskin | Spinus pinus | Canada, Alaska and, to a more variable degree, across the western mountains and northern parts of the United States | |
| Black-capped siskin | Spinus atriceps | Guatemala and Mexico | |
| Black-headed siskin | Spinus notata | Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua | |
| Black-chinned siskin | Spinus barbata | Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands | |
| Yellow-bellied siskin | Spinus xanthogastra | Costa Rica south to southern Ecuador, central Bolivia and the highlands of northwestern Venezuela | |
| Olivaceous siskin | Spinus olivacea | northern Peru to La Paz and Cochabamba in Bolivia and to southeastern Ecuador, and has also been observed east of the Andes near Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia | |
| Hooded siskin | Spinus magellanica | central Argentina north to central Brazil | |
| Saffron siskin | Spinus siemiradzkii | Ecuador and Peru | |
| Yellow-faced siskin | Spinus yarrellii | Brazil and Venezuela | |
| Red siskin | Spinus cucullata | northern Colombia and northern Venezuela | |
| Black siskin | Spinus atrata | Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru | |
| Yellow-rumped siskin | Spinus uropygialis | Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru | |
| Thick-billed siskin | Spinus crassirostris | Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru | - |
| Andean siskin | Spinus spinescens | Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela |