The Cardinalidae are closely related to the tanagers (Thraupidae), finches (Fringillidae), and true buntings (Emberizidae), and many species were formerly included in the two latter families. It currently encompasses cardinals, New World buntings, New World grosbeaks, saltators, and possibly the ant-tanagers (Habia) and Piranga tanagers (11-14 genera and ca. 50 species). We prefer to retain Habia and Piranga spp. within the Thraupidae; the rest probably belongs within the Fringillidae.

Cardinaline finches, in sensu stricto, inhabit forest edges, open woodlands, scrublands, and savannas in the temperate and tropical Americas; some species are residential, and others migratory. These are generally robust birds with strong conical bills, 11-25 cm in length. Sexually dichromatic; the males are often bright red, blue, or yellow; the females more subdued in colour or drab. Cardinals and their allies feed mainly on seeds, fruit, and arthropods.

		Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
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