The Puerto Rican Tanager is newly recognized as a single-species family endemic to the highlands of Puerto Rico.  As its name suggests, it was traditionally classified as a “tanager” (i.e., a member of the Thraupidae), but genetic studies show that it is not closely related to that group.

According to the taxonomic understanding of 2018, it could either be regarded as independent or included as a member of the spindalises, having diverged from them about ten to twelve million years ago.  However, it bears a stronger visible resemblance to another newly recognized family of divergent ex-thraupids, also endemic to the West Indies: Calyptophilidae, the chat-tanagers of Hispaniola.