Poephila

Poephila
Long-tailed finch, Poephila acuticauda
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Estrildidae
Genus:	Poephila Gould, 1842
Type species
Amadina acuticauda Gould, 1840
Species
See text

Poephila is an Australian genus of estrildid finches.

The adults have pinkish underparts, buff or brown upperparts, a black tail and lower belly, and white rumps uppertail coverts and undertail coverts. Males and females closely resemble each other, although the male is a little larger.

These are birds of dry open grassland, occurring from the north-west to the eastern coast of Australia. They glean seed from the ground or seed-heads of grasses, occasionally supplementing their diet with insects.

Taxonomy

The genus Poephila was introduced in 1842 by the English ornithologist John Gould in his The Birds of Australia in which he placed several species in the genus but did not specify a type species. ^{[1] [2]} In February of 1842 at a meeting of the Zoological Society in London, Gould had designated the type as Amadina acuticauda Gould, the long-tailed finch, but a report on this meeting was not published until November. ^[3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ποιη/poiē meaning "grass" with φιλος/philos meaning "lover". ^[4]

Species

The genus contains the following three species: ^[5]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Masked finch	Poephila personata	northern Australia, from the Kimberley, across the Top End, the Gulf country and the southern part of Cape York Peninsula, as far east as Chillagoe
	Long-tailed finch	Poephila acuticauda	Australia, from the Kimberley region to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
	Black-throated finch	Poephila cincta	north-east Australia from Cape York Peninsula to central Queensland

References

1. Gould, John (1842). The Birds of Australia. Vol. 3. London: self. Part 6, Plate 90 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. p. 40.
2. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 359.
3. Gould, John (November 1842). "On new species of birds from Australia". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 10: 17–21 [18]. For the publication date see: Sclater, P.L. (1893). "List of the dates of delivery of the sheets of the 'Proceedings' of the Zoological Society of London, from the commencement in 1830 to 1859 inclusive". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 436-440 [438].
4. Jobling, James A. "Poephila". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Waxbills, parrotfinches, munias, whydahs, Olive Warbler, accentors, pipits". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 6 August 2025.

Further reading

• Clement, Harris and Davis, Finches and Sparrows ISBN   0-7136-8017-2