The genus Carduelis is a group of birds in the finch family Fringillidae. It formerly included the greenfinches, redpolls, crossbills, American goldfinches, and the non-African siskins before they were split into separate genera. No species of this group ranges far into Africa (where they are replaced by the related genus Serinus), and the centers of evolution were probably Eurasia and North America, with a secondary radiation in the Neotropics.The interrelationship of these species is complex and contentious. The crossbills are actually derived from proto-redpoll ancestors quite recently, and they are now placed in the genus Loxia. The greenfinches (which are apparently the most distinct group) and the redpolls, though, have themselves been separated in distinct genera which might be the best way to express both the actual evolutionary relationships and the evolutionarily significant distinctiveness of the crossbills. The molecular data indicate the major lineages split in the Late Miocene (Tortonian, roughly 9-7 million years ago (mya), but it is unable to suggest any one robust arrangement either of the major groups among each other, among the lineages of Carduelis sensu stricto, or indeed among two separate Serinus lineages. As only the mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence has hitherto been studied (Arnaiz-Villena et al., 1998), more data is clearly necessary.Here, the species of Carduelis sensu lato are listed according to current knowledge. The genus Carduelis sensu stricto could conceivably be split further, and in this case only the European goldfinch and the citril and Corsican finch (newly placed in this genus) would remain in Carduelis. The South American classification of the AOU places South American siskins in the genus Sporagra, but it has not been universally adopted.