The genus
Melopyrrha was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist
Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The
type species was later specified by
George Robert Gray as the
Cuban bullfinch. The name combines the
Ancient Greek melas meaning "black" with the genus
Pyrrhula introduced by
Mathurin Jacques Brisson for the bullfinches. This genus was formerly
monospecific containing only the Cuban bullfinch. A
molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus
Loxigilla was
polyphyletic and that the
Greater Antillean bullfinch,
Puerto Rican bullfinch and Cuban bullfinch formed a
clade. The three species were therefore placed together in
Melopyrrha. In 2021, the possibly extinct
St. Kitts bullfinch (
M. grandis) was split from
M. portoricensis as a distinct species. Although these species were traditionally placed with the buntings and
New World sparrows in the family
Emberizidae, molecular genetic studies have shown that they are members of the tanager family
Thraupidae and belong to the
subfamily Coerebinae that also contains
Darwin's finches. ==Species==