Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS

THE PITTAS

Pittas Species

In the typical Pittas {Pitta), which number over fifty species, the bill is shorter and less compressed than in those first mentioned, and the tail is short and more or less squared. Many of them are exceedingly brilliant, such, for example, as the Lesser Blue-winged Pitta (P. cyanoptera) of Burma, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula, which is dark green above, with a brown cap, black head and nape, brilliant blue rump, and black white-barred wings, while the throat is white, and the remainder of the under parts deep fawn-color except in the middle of the abdomen and the crissum, which are crimson. A Bornean species (P. granatina) is dull black, glossed with purple above, set off by a bright scarlet cap, and a purplish brown throat and a dull scarlet abdomen, while another gem (P. baudi) from the same island is crimson above, with the nape and sides of the head black, the crown, rump, and tail brilliant blue, and the wing-coverts with a pure white terminal band, while the throat and a spot on each side of the head is pure white and the breast black, passing into purple and blue on the abdomen. Their habits are similar and all construct the domed nests already described.
Equally brilliant are the five species of the genus Eucichla, which are distinguished from the last by the longer, sharp-pointed tail. Of these Gurney's Pitta (E. gurneyi) of Tenasserim and the northern portion of the Malay Peninsula is one of the most striking. It is clear brown above, with the front half of the head and nape black and the hinder half brilliant blue, the feathers pointed, while the wings are blackish brown, and the chin whitish, passing into bright yellow on the throat and neck and black on the abdomen, the flanks being yellowish barred with black. It is found in the deep evergreen forests, and is one of the forms that is more or less migratory. Differing from this in possessing a slightly longer tail, and a black instead of a blue crown, is the equally gorgeous Elegant Pitta (E. boschi), which, has been selected as the subject of the colored plate; it is a native of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra.
The remaining genus (Mellopitta), which is referred here with some doubt, embraces two species, both of New Guinea. They have long legs, a comparatively elongated tail, and a short, erect frontal crest; the plumage is uniform black throughout.

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