Banda Sea Pitta - BirdForum Opus

Alternative names: Two-striped Pitta; Banda Elegant Pitta

Identification

19cm

Black head and hindneck with whitish lateral crownstripe
Dark green upperparts (frequently with dusky streaks)
Turquoise-blue rump
Black tail with green tip
Large turquoise-blue patch on lesser coverts, black flight-feathers, base of primaries with white patch, secondaries with bluish and green edges
White chin and upper throat
Warm cinnamon-buff underparts
A patch on central belly is black at the front becoming first scarlet and then paler red on the vent
Black bill

Sexes similar. Juveniles are duller, have less blue feathers in wing, a pinkish lower belly and an orange tip of bill.

Ornate Pitta and Elegant Pitta both have black on chin and upper throat, and usually more strongly colored supercilium.

Found on the southern Moluccas and eastern Lesser Sundas: Seram, Watubela, Banda, Tayandu, Kai and Tanimbar islands.

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Ornate Pitta and Banda Sea Pitta were formerly included in Elegant Pitta.

Woodlands of several types but seems to prefer dense understory at least in some locations.

Seems to spend much time on the ground but may sit high up when singing. Food is largely unknown but expected to take mainly invertebrates.

Seasonal singing consists of either a two or three syllable whistle. Alarm call is a single note nasal sound.

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Eaton, JA, B van Balen, NW Brickle, FE Rheindt 2021. Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago (Greater Sundas and Wallacea), Second Edition. Lynx Editions. ISBN978-84-16728-44-2
Kirwan, G. M., J. Erritzoe, and E. de Juana (2021). Banda Sea Pitta (Pitta vigorsii), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (B. K. Keeney, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.elepit6.01.1

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Banda Sea Pitta. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Banda_Sea_Pitta

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.