Emblema (bird)

Emblema
Male painted finch (Emblema pictum)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Estrildidae
Genus:	Emblema Gould, 1842
Type species
Emblema picta Gould, 1842
Synonyms
Bathilda Reichenbach, 1862 Aidemosyne Reichenbach, 1862

Emblema is a genus of estrildid finches found in Australasia. They are gregarious seed-eaters with short, thick, but pointed bills.

Taxonomy

The genus Emblema was introduced in 1842 by the English ornithologist John Gould to accommodate a single species, Emblema picta Gould, the painted finch. ^{[1] [2]} The genus name is from Latin emblema, emblematis meaning "inlaid" or "mosaic work". ^[3]

The genus contains three species: ^[4]

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Painted finch	Emblema pictum	northern Australia (Pilbara region, including Barrow Island, central Western Australia, eastward to northwestern Queensland)
	Star finch	Emblema ruficauda	northwest to northeast (formerly central east) Australia
	Plum-headed finch	Emblema modestum	eastern Australia (northern Queensland to central New South Wales)

References

1. Gould, John (1842). The Birds of Australia. Vol. 3, part 7. London: self. Plate 97 and text. The 7 volumes were published in 36 parts. For the date see: Waterhouse, Frederick Herschel (1885). The Dates of Publication of Some of the Zoological Works of the Late John Gould, F.R.S. London: R.H. Porter. pp. 28–44.
2. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 353.
3. Jobling, James A. "Emblema". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
4. AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi: 10.2173/avilist.v2025 . Retrieved 19 November 2025.