About Carpodacus sipahi (Hodgson, 1836)
The scarlet finch, with the scientific name Carpodacus sipahi, is a small passerine bird that belongs to the finch family Fringillidae. Its range extends across the Himalayas, starting from Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas, eastward through Nepal, and continuing further east to the adjacent hills of Northeast India and Southeast Asia, reaching as far south as Thailand. It is resident in the Himalayan region, though many individuals winter immediately south of this area. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. This species was first described by British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1836 under the original binomial name Corythus sipahi. The species epithet sipahi derives from the Hindustani word sipāhi, meaning soldier, or its Anglicised form sepoy, referencing the red uniform worn by people employed by the East India Company. The scarlet finch was formerly classified in the monotypic genus Haematospiza, but was moved to the rosefinch genus Carpodacus following results from molecular phylogenetic studies.
