firefinch

{{short description|Genus of birds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| name = Firefinches

| image = Firefinch-Senegal-2007.jpg

| image_caption = Red-billed firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala)

| taxon = Lagonosticta

| authority = Cabanis, 1851

| type_species = Fringilla rubricata{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=191 |title= Estrildidae |author= |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-16}}

| type_species_authority = M.H.C. Lichtenstein, 1823

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = 11, see text

}}

The firefinches form a genus, Lagonosticta, of small seed-eating African birds in the family Estrildidae.

The genus was introduced by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis in 1851.{{ cite book | last1=Cabanis | first1=Jean | author1-link=Jean Cabanis | last2=Heine | first2=Ferdinand | author2-link=Ferdinand Heine | year=1860 | title=Museum Heineanum : Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine, auf Gut St. Burchard vor Halberstadt | volume=1 | language=German, Latin | place=Halberstadt | publisher=R. Frantz | page=171 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49584550 }} The type species was subsequently designated as the African firefinch.{{ cite book | editor-last=Paynter | editor-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1968 | title=Check-list of birds of the world | volume=14 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=325 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14481526 }} The name combines the Ancient Greek words lagōn "flank" and stiktos "spotted".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=217 }} The genus Lagonosticta is sister to the brown twinspot which is placed in its own genus Clytospiza.{{Cite journal | last1=Olsson | first1=Urban | last2=Alström | first2=Per | author2-link=Alström | date=2020 | title=A comprehensive phylogeny and taxonomic evaluation of the waxbills (Aves: Estrildidae) | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=146 | pages=106757 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106757| doi-access=free | pmid=32028027 | bibcode=2020MolPE.14606757O }}