Aethopyga vigorsii (Sykes, 1832)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Vigors's Sunbird (Aethopyga vigorsii, Nectariniidae, Passeriformes) male in Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra, India.
Tisha Mukherjee · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Vigors's sunbird (Aethopyga vigorsii), Sahyadri sunbird, or western crimson sunbird, is a species of sunbird which is endemic to the Western Ghats of India. It has been considered as a subspecies of the crimson sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja) but it does not have the central tail as elongated and is restricted in its distribution.
The male has a scarlet throat and breast, while the rest of its under parts are uniformly grey. Its wings are grey-brown and lack yellowish-olive edges. However, it is yellow on the lower back and tail is bottle green.
The female's upperparts are dark olive, while its underparts are grey. A male who has not yet matured is similar to the female, but it has a dull scarlet throat and breast.
The species is distributed mainly in the northern Western Ghats but has been reported from the Nilgiris. It was named after Irish-born zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors by Colonel William Henry Sykes.
Wikipedia contributors, Vigors's sunbird; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:48:00.611531+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Aethopyga vigorsii (Sykes, 1832)
- Name authority
- (Sykes, 1832)
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Nectariniidae
- Genus
- Aethopyga
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyNectariniidae Vigors, 1825
- genusAethopyga Cabanis, 1850
- speciesAethopyga vigorsii (Sykes, 1832)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Aethopyga. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Fire-tailed SunbirdAethopyga ignicauda (Hodgson, 1836) | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Metallic-winged SunbirdAethopyga pulcherrima Sharpe, 1876 | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Aethopyga primigenia (Hachisuka, 1941) | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Elegant SunbirdAethopyga duyvenbodei (Schlegel, 1871) | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Apo SunbirdAethopyga boltoni Mearns, 1905 | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Aethopyga guimarasensis (Steere, 1890) | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Aethopyga bella Tweeddale, 1877 | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Fork-tailed SunbirdAethopyga christinae Swinhoe, 1869 | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Lovely SunbirdAethopyga shelleyi Sharpe, 1876 | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Aethopyga temminckii (S. Muller, 1843) | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Aethopyga tibolii Kennedy, Gonzales & Miranda, 1997 | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Aethopyga jefferyi (Ogilvie-Grant, 1894) | NectariniidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=916479 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:65CCP. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.