Thraupid group

Thraupid group is an informal grouping of Mitrospingidae, Cardinalidae and Thraupidae. It is used to show the relationships between other nine-primaried oscines.

Distribution
The thraupid group is mainly found in the Americas, from Canada to Argentina. Tanagers reach their greatest diversity in the New World tropics.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Lazuli Bunting, Scarlet Tanager and Summer Tanager are all vagrants to the Palearctic.

Species found in South America are nonmigrant.

Anatomy
They range from small, such as the Bananaquit and conebills, which are 4 in, and the Painted and Indigo Buntings, which are 5 in ; to medium, such as cardinals, which are up to 9 in as well as the Black-headed Saltator, which is 10 in and the Magpie Tanager, which is 11 in.

Many species are colourful, such as the Tangara tanagers, they have diverse colour patterns. They are mainly yellow, red, green and blue, with a few with metallic colours.

Many species of tanager have stout bills, similar to finches. Honeycreepers, however; have thin and decurved bills undefined, while the flowerpiercers bills are slightly upturned with a hooked tip. Grosbeaks have thick bills and powerful jaw muscles, used to crack open heavy seeds. The Giant Conebill resembles a nuthatch, while most species of tanagers have a finchlike body shape, with a medium-sized tail.

In most species of tanagers, there is no sexual dimorphism. In cardinals, the males are more colourful than females during the breeding season.

Behaviour and diet
The males of most species of

Tanagers generally eat fruit, but most species also eat insects and spiders.

Taxonomy
Euphonias and chlorophonias were once classified as tanagers. Many books may classify them as tanagers still. According to Groth, (1998) ; Klicka et al., (2000) ; Yuri and Mindell, (2002) ; Zuccon et al., (2012), they are embedded in Fringillidae.

For some decades, taxonomists have placed the Darwin's finches in the family Emberizidae along with the New World sparrows and Old World buntings (Sulloway 1982). However, the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy puts Darwin's finches with the tanagers (Monroe and Sibley 1993), and at least one recent work follows that example (Burns and Skutch 2003). The American Ornithologists' Union, in its North American check-list, places the Cocos Finch in the Emberizidae but with an asterisk indicating that the placement is probably wrong (AOU 1998–2006) ; in its tentative South American check-list, the Galápagos species are incertae sedis, of uncertain place (Remsen et al. 2007).