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Pipilo | |
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Spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus) | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Passerellidae |
Genus: | Pipilo Vieillot, 1816 |
Type species | |
Fringilla erythrophthalma[1] Linnaeus, 1758
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Species | |
4, see text |
Pipilo is a genus of birds in the American sparrow family Passerellidae. It is one of two genera containing birds with the common name towhee.
The genus Pipilo was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the eastern towhee as the type species.[2][3] The name Pipilo is Neo-Latin for "bunting" from pipilare "to chirp".[4] Within the New World sparrow family Passerellidae, the genus Pipilo is sister to the larger genus Atlapetes.[5]
The genus contains five species:[6]
Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
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Pipilo chlorurus | Green-tailed towhee | interior Western United States, with a winter range in Mexico and the southern edge of the Southwestern United States |
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Pipilo ocai | Collared towhee | Mexico |
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Pipilo erythrophthalmus | Eastern towhee | eastern North America |
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Pipilo maculatus | Spotted towhee | across western North America |
Pipilo naufragus | Bermuda towhee | Bermuda; extinct |