''Aethopyga'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of birds in the sunbird family Nectariniidae. Species in this genus are found in

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and parts of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Many species such as the

grey-hooded sunbird The grey-hooded sunbird (''Aethopyga primigenia'') is a species of bird in the family Nectariniidae. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitat is tropical moist montane forests. Description eBird describes the bird as "A small b ...

Apo sunbird The Apo sunbird (''Aethopyga boltoni'') is a species of bird in the sunbird family Nectariniidae. It is endemic to the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. Description The Apo sunbird has several distinctions between its male and female coun ...

Tboli sunbird The Apo sunbird (''Aethopyga boltoni'') is a species of bird in the sunbird family Nectariniidae. It is endemic to the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. Description The Apo sunbird has several distinctions between its male and female coun ...

, metallic-winged sunbird, handsome sunbird and Lina's sunbird are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Aethopyga'' was introduced in 1851 by the German ornithologist

Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 18 ...

. The name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''aithos '' meaning "fire" or "burning heat" with ''pugē'' meaning "rump". The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

was designated as the crimson sunbird by George Robert Gray in 1855.

Species

The genus contains 22 species:

References

Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Nectariniidae-stub