See text Guiraca Linaria Bartram, 1791 The genus Passerina is a group of birds in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae).

The males show vivid colors in the breeding season; the plumage of females and immature birds is duller.

They have smaller bills than other Cardinalidae; they mainly eat seeds in winter and insects in summer.

The genus Passerina was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.

[1] The type species was designated in 1840 as the indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea) by the English zoologist George Robert Gray.