Firefinches | |
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Red-billed firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala) | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Estrildidae |
Subfamily: | Estrildidae |
Genus: | Lagonosticta Cabanis, 1851 |
Type species | |
Fringilla rubricata[1] M.H.C. Lichtenstein, 1823
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Species | |
11, see text |
The firefinches form a genus, Lagonosticta, of small seed-eating African birds in the family Estrildidae.
The genus was introduced by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis in 1851.[2] The type species was subsequently designated as the African firefinch.[3] The name combines the Ancient Greek words lagōn "flank" and stiktos "spotted".[4] The genus Lagonosticta is sister to the brown twinspot which is placed in its own genus Clytospiza.[5]