Greater Antillean Bullfinch (Melopyrrha violacea) [XC426026]
by Nick Komar from Ecclesdown Road, Portland Parish, Jamaica (song)
Greater Antillean Bullfinch (Melopyrrha violacea) [XC775667]
by Paul Driver from Andros, Bahamas, Bahamas (song)
Subspecies
Genus may belong in tanager family (Thraupidae). Appears to be part of a clade which also includes several other Caribbean genera (Euneornis, Loxipasser, Melopyrrha, Melanospiza), Tiaris grassquits, Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola), and "Darwin's finches" (Certhidea, Platyspiza, Pinaroloxias, Camarhynchus, Geospiza). Several subspecies differ almost exclusively on size, and validity questionable.
Proposed subspecies parishi (described from I í Vache) supposedly differs on smaller size, but measurements do not confirm this. Birds of Beata (and previously those of Catalina) sometimes allotted to this subspecies. Birds of Gonave and Saona sometimes placed in maurella.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
violacea (Linnaeus, 1758) - Most of the larger islands in Bahamas.
ofella Buden, 1986 - Middle and East Caicos Is (southern Bahamas).
affinis (Ridgway, 1898) - Hispaniola, and offshore islands of Goní¢ve, í Vache, Beata, Catalina and Saona.
maurella Wetmore, 1929 - Tortue I (off north-western Hispaniola).
ruficollis (Gmelin, JF, 1789) - Jamaica.
parishi Wetmore, 1931 - Île-á-Vache and Beata I. (off Hispaniola).