Systematics

Two subspecies currently are recognized:

nigra

Inhabits the island of Cuba, Island of Youth (formerly known as Pines), several keys in Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago at north and Cayo Cantiles and Cayo Rosario in Los Canarreos Archipelago at the south. See Detailed Description.

taylori

Occurs only on Grand Cayman Island. Hartert (1896) noticed that the population found on Grand Cayman is larger and has much less of the metallic bluish green steel-gloss; morphological variations are also evident in the plumage of females, which are a paler olive-gray. He described this population as a separate species, Melopyrrha taylori. Young birds of both sexes are ashy brown, lack the white on the wing, and the bill is pale instead of black (Raffaele et al. 1998, 2003).

Traditionally Melopyrrha nigra was classified in a family of finches, such as Fringillidae (Ridgway 1901) or Emberizidae (Paynter 1970). Melopyrrha nigra is the sole living specie in this genus and belongs to the Family Emberizidae in the Order Passeriformes (NACC 2012). The type specimen was named Loxia nigra by Linnaeus (Ridgway 1901).

Recently, phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data, from mitochondrial DNA, suggests instead that Melopyrrha is one of many genera of "finches" that belongs to the thraupid radiation ("tanagers", Thraupidae) (Burns et al. 2002, 2003).

Currently there are five species of bullfinch in the Caribbean, classified in two genera: Melopyrrha nigra and the four species of Loxigilla: Loxigilla portoricensis (Puerto Rican Bullfinch), Loxigilla violacea (Greater Antillean Bullfinch), Loxigilla noctis (Lesser Antillean Bullfinch), and Loxigilla barbadensis (Barbados Bullfinch). There is no phylogenetic study that comprehensively treats all species of bullfinch. Burns et al. (2002) included most species (lacking only L. barbadensis), however, in a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data (from cytochrome b). Burns et al. (2002) found that L. portoricensis and L. violacea belong to a clade that includes Melopyrrha nigra. On the other hand, Loxigilla noctis apparently is not congeneric with other Loxigilla; instead, noctis belongs to a clade that includes Tiaris bicolor (Black-faced Grassquit) and Melanospiza richardsoni (St. Lucia Black Finch). All of these species, however, are embedded within a radiation of small-bodied nine-primaried oscines that share a similar domed nest architecture. Many of these taxa are Caribbean, although this radiation also includes the Darwin's finches; another member of this larger radiation is Coereba flaveola (Bananaquit).