Alternative name: Green-breasted Pitta; Black-headed Pitta
- Pitta sordida
Identification
16 - 19cm, a rather small pitta, very variable.
Male
- Mainly green plumage
- Black head, some subspecies with chestnut crown (eg abbotti and cucullata)
- Red vent
- Most subspecies with red lower belly (black in forsteni, with blue boarder in rosenbergii and mefoorana)
- Bluish shoulder patch
- Variable amount of white in wing (no white in rosenbergii, mefoorana and novaguineae)
Female
- Slightly duller and more olive-green than male
- Less white in wing
Juveniles have a scaly dark brown crown, dull brown upperparts with large white spots on wing-coverts, whitish lower thraot with blackish chin and pinkish belly and vent.
Distribution
Northern India east to Nepal, Bhutan, northeast India to China and south to Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and to New Guinea. Recorded as vagrant in Taiwan.
Widely distributed and the commonest Pitta in most of its range.
Taxonomy
May form a superspecies with Superb Pitta and Ivory-breasted Pitta, sometimes including Azure-breasted Pitta.
Subspecies
There are 12 subspecies[1]:
- P. s. cucullata from the Himalayan foothills in northern India to south China and Indochina
- P. s. abboti on Nicobar Islands (India)
- P. s. mulleri from extrem south Thailand to the Malay Peninsula, on Sumatra, Borneo and Java and the western Sulu Islands
- P. s. bangkana on Bangka and Belitung islands (off Sumatra)
- P. s. sordida on the Philippine Islands (except Palawan group)
- P. s. palawensis on the western Philippines (Palawan, Culion, Balabac, Calauit and Busuanga)
- P. s. sanghirana on Sangihe I. (ne of Sulawesi)
- P. s. forsteni on northern N Sulawesi (Minahassa Peninsula)
- P. s. novaeguineae on W Papuan islands, New Guinea and Karkar I.
- P. s. mefoorana on Numfor I. (off nw New Guinea)
- P. s. rosenbergii on Biak I. (off nw New Guinea)
- P. s. goodfellowi on Aru Islands (off s New Guinea)
Habitat
Wide range of habitat, forest, mangroves and scrub.
Up to 2000m in India, to 500m (locally up to 1200m) in New Guinea.
Behaviour
Feeds on insects, larvae, earthworms and snails. Forages on the forest floor among dead leaves.
Breeding season divers through range, April to August in India, May to October in southeast Asia, February to June in Sulawesi and December to June in New Guinea. The nest is a flattened dome made of twigs, dead leaves, plant fibres, rootlets and moss. Lays 2 - 5 eggs.
In most of its range sedentary, cucullata mostly migratory.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2012. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2012. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
- Dickinson, EC, ed. 2003. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed., with updates to October 2008 (Corrigenda 8). Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691117010
- Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2010. IOC World Bird Names (version 2.7). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and D Christie, eds. 2003. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 8: Broadbills to Tapaculos. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334504
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Hooded Pitta. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 18 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Hooded_Pitta
External Links
