West Mexican Euphonia, Euphonia godmani

West Mexican Euphonia, Euphonia godmani, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, December 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The West Mexican Euphonia, Euphonia godmani, is a member of the Fringillidae Family of Finches, Euphonias and Allies, which has two hundred forty-nine members placed in forty-nine genera, and one of twenty-five global species of the Euphonia Genus. Historically they have been considered to be a subspecies of Scrub Euphonhia, Eurphonia affinis godmani, but became a new species in 2021. They are also known as Godman’s Euphonia and in Mexico as Eufonia Garganta Negra.

The West Mexican Euphonia is small in stature with a short tail. The females are a dull greenish-gray above and pale yellow below. The males have a blue-black head, upperparts, and chest, and yellow on the forecrown and remaining underparts. Their bill is short, stubby, black terminally and bluish gray basally, their iris is dark brown, and their legs are dark gray.

The West Mexican Euphonia is endemic to western Mexico that is found on the Pacific Slope from southern Sonora to central Guerrero at elevations up to 1,000 m (3,300 feet). They reside in arid tropical habitats along western coast of Mexico, in a variety of semi-open, drier, or lightly wooded areas that have annual highly contrasting dry seasons and wet seasons. They are frugivorous primarily consuming berries, small fruits, and insects. They are known to forage in mixed flocks of other fruit-eating birds. They are considered to be non-migratory. The West Mexican Euphonia is poorly studied and very little has been documented about their biology and behavioral patterns.

The West Mexican Euphonia is very similar to the Scrub Euphonia, Euphonia affinis, which lacks the white undertail coverts and resides in Eastern Mexico.

From a conservation perspective the West Mexican Euphonia is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. Their long-term viability is threatened by the destruction of tropical dry forests.