Cardellina is a genus of passerine birds in the New World warbler family Parulidae. The genus name Cardellina is a diminutive of the Italian dialect word Cardella for the European goldfinch.[1]
The genus was introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850.[2] The type species was subsequently designated as the red-faced warbler.[3][4] The genus originally contained one species, the red-faced warbler. A comprehensive study of the wood-warblers published in 2010 that analysed mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences found that the five species formed a discrete clade, with the Wilson's and Canada warblers as early offshoots, followed by a lineage that gave rise to two branches - one leading to the red-faced and another that diverged to the red and pink-headed warblers.[5]