When English-speaking settlers first saw the North American robin they named it for a bird they knew in Europe.  This happened despite the fact that the two robins are unrelated.  The European robin is an Old World flycatcher (Muscicapidae).  The American robin is a Thrush (Turdidae).

A similar confusion occurred with the Lesser Antillean bullfinch (Loxigilla noctis).

Native to the arc of islands from Puerto Rico to South America, the beak on this bird resembles that of the Eurasian bullfinch and so he was named.  But the Eurasian bullfinch is a True Finch (Fringillidae).  The Lesser Antillean bullfinch is a Tanager (Thraupidae).

And now the Tanager family is in flux.  Our familiar tanagers (scarlet, summer and western) have been moved to the Cardinal family (Cardinalidae) while euphonias and chlorophonias left Tanagers to become True Finches.

This bird remains a Tanager but he was joined by a very famous set of birds: Darwin’s finches of the Galapagos.

I’ve already seen and heard this bird at St. John and guess what… His song resembles a northern cardinal’s.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons taken at St. John, US Virgin Islands by Dick Daniels. Click on the image to see the original)