Vigors's sunbird
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.
| Vigors's sunbird | |
|---|---|
| Male A. vigorsii from Mangaon, Maharashtra, India | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Nectariniidae |
| Genus: | Aethopyga |
| Species: | A. vigorsii |
| Binomial name | |
| Aethopyga vigorsii (Sykes, 1832) | |
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.