NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Great Indian Bustard
Ardeotis nigriceps (Vigors, 1831)
Source-backed taxonomic record
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.
Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps, Desert National Park, Rajasthan, India
Original: SVKMBFLY; this edit: MPF · 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
The great Indian bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) or Indian bustard is a bustard occurring on the Indian subcontinent. It is a large bird with a horizontal body, long bare legs and is among the heaviest of the flying birds. Once common on the dry grasslands and shrubland in India, as few as 150 individuals were estimated to survive as of 2018, reduced from an estimated 250 individuals in 2011. It is critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. It is protected under the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
Wikipedia contributors, Great Indian bustard; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:48:38.927673+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Ardeotis nigriceps (Vigors, 1831)
- Name authority
- (Vigors, 1831)
- Common name
- Great Indian Bustard
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Otidiformes
- Family
- Otididae
- Genus
- Ardeotis
- 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
- orderOtidiformes
- familyOtididae
- genusArdeotis Le Maout, 1853
- speciesArdeotis nigriceps (Vigors, 1831)
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Otis nigriceps Vigors, 1831 Vigors, 1831 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
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=176430 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:GCMS. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.