Indian pitta

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Indian pitta
Indian pitta in Maharashtra, India
Call

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Pittidae
Genus: Pitta
Species:
P. brachyura
Binomial name
Pitta brachyura
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms

Corvus brachyurus Linnaeus, 1766[2]

The Indian pitta (Pitta brachyura) is a

least concern on the IUCN Red List as the population is considered large.[1]

Taxonomy

The Indian pitta was first known in England after an illustration by an Indian artist was sent by

scientific name Corvus brachyura.[8] Linnaeus specified the type location as "Moluccis" and "Zeylona". The Maluku Islands is an error as the Indian pitta does not occur there.[9] The generic name Pitta was proposed by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 for birds with a short tail, a straight pointed beak and long wing feathers.[10]
It is a
monotypic species.[11]

Etymology

The word 'pitta' is derived from the

classical Greek words βραχυς brakhus 'short' and -ουρος -ouros '-tailed'.[13]

Local names in India are based on the colours and behaviours like the time of calling and these include

Kannada: Navaranga and Sinhala: Avichchiya.[14] The Sinhala interpretation of its call is that the bird is complaining about the theft of its dress by a peacock: Evith giya, evith giya, ayith kiyannam, methe budun buduwana vita ayith kiyannam,which translates as: "Came and went! Came and went! I'll still be complaining when the next Buddha comes! I'll still be complaining!"[15]

Description

Thomas Hardwicke's illustration - "short-tailed pelta" (1834)

The Indian pitta is a small stubby-tailed bird that is mostly seen on the floor of forests or under dense undergrowth, foraging on insects in

leaf litter. It has long, strong legs, a very short tail and stout bill, with a buff-coloured crown stripe, black coronal stripes, a thick black eye stripe and white throat and neck. The upper parts are green, with a blue tail, the underparts buff, with bright red on the lower belly and vent. The bird hops on the ground to forage and has been known to get trapped in ground traps meant for small mammals.[16] It has been suggested that the width of the coronal stripe may differ between the sexes.[17]

It is more often heard than seen and has a distinctive loud two-note whistle wheeet-tieu or wieet-pyou or sometimes, a triple note hh-wit-wiyu. They also have a single note-mewing call.[3] They have a habit of calling once or twice, often with neighbouring individuals joining in, at dawn or dusk leading to their common name of "Six-O-Clock" bird in Tamil.[18] When calling the head is thrown back and the bill is pointed upwards.[19]

Pittas are among the few

superspecies with the fairy pitta (P. nympha), mangrove pitta (P. megarhyncha) and blue-winged pitta (P. moluccensis).[21]

Distribution and habitat

A bird being measured at Point Calimere
Bhaluka

The Indian pitta breeds mainly in the

Margalla hills in northern Pakistan to Nepal and possibly up to Sikkim in the east, and in the hills of central India and in the Western Ghats south to Karnataka.[22][23][24] It migrates to all parts of peninsular India and Sri Lanka in winter. Exhausted birds sometimes turn up in human settlements.[19] It is rare in the Thar Desert.[25]

Ecology and behaviour

Indian pittas roost in trees.[23] They feed on insects and other small

leaf litter. They have also been noted to take kitchen food scraps from the ground.[26]

They breed during the south-west monsoon from June to August, with peaks in June in central India, and in July in northern India.[27] The nest is a globular structure with a circular opening on one side built on the ground or on low branches. It is made up of dry leaves and grasses. The clutch is four to five eggs which are very glossy white and spherical with spots and speckles of deep maroon or purple.[19][23]

ectoparasite survey were found to have the tick, Haemaphysalis spinigera.[29]

Their seasonal movements associated with the rains have not been well studied.[3]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22698681A93696932.en
    . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ Dickinson, E. C.; Dekker, R. W. R. J.; Eck, S. & Somadikarta, S. (2000). "Systematic notes on Asian birds. 5. Types of the Pittidae". Zoologische Verhandelingen. 331: 101–119.
  3. ^ a b c Ali, S.; S. D. Ripley (1983). Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 252–253.
  4. ^ Ray, J.; Derham, W. (1713). "Avium Maderaspatanarum". Joannis Raii Synopsis methodica avium (in Latin). London: Impensis Gulielmi Innys. p. 195.
  5. ^ Brisson, M. J. (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. 2. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 316–318, Plate 31.
  6. ^ Edwards, G. (1764). Gleanings of Natural History, Exhibiting Figures of Quadrupeds, Birds, Insects, Plants &c. Vol. 3. London: Printed for the author. p. 242, Plate 324.
  7. hdl:2246/678
    .
  8. ^ Linnaeus, C. (1766). Systema naturae: per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. Volume 1, Part 1 (Twelfth ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 158.
  9. ^ Traylor, Melvin A. Jr., ed. (1979). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 8. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 324.
  10. ^ Vieillot, L. J. P. (1816). "137. Brève, Pitta. Corvus Linn. Gm. Lath.". Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 42, Num. 137.
  11. ^ Erritzoe, J. (2016). "Indian Pitta (Pitta brachyura)". In del Hoyo, J.; Collar, N. J.; Christie, D. A.; Elliot, A.; Fishpool, L. D. C.; Boesman, P.; Kirwan, G. M. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines. Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International.
  12. ^ Newton, A. (1893). "Pitta". A dictionary of birds. London: A. and C. Black. pp. 727–729.
  13. ^ Jobling, J. A. (2019). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D. A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  14. ^ Anonymous (1998). "Vernacular Names of the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent: 867. Indian Pitta". Buceros. 3 (1): 53–109.
  15. hdl:2433/110021
    .
  16. ^ Prabhakar, A. (1998). "An Indian Pitta (Pitta brachyura) trapped in a standard Sherman live trap". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 95 (1): 114–115.
  17. ^ Harper, E. W. (1902). "The sex of the Bengal pitta Pitta brachyura". Avicultural Magazine. 1 (1): 29.
  18. ^ Lambert, F. (1996). "Identification of pittas in the brachyura complex in Asia". OBC Bull. 23: 31–37. Archived from the original on 2008-06-04.
  19. ^ a b c Whistler, H. (1949). Popular Handbook of Indian Birds (4th ed.). Gurney and Jackson. pp. 275–277.
  20. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00249.x
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-7136-6534-5
    .
  22. ^ Islam, K. (1978). "Sighting of the Indian Pitta (Pitta brachyura) in Pakistan". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 75 (3): 924–925.
  23. ^ a b c Rasmussen, P. C.; J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. pp. 295–296.
  24. ^ Pande, S. A. (2001). "The Nesting of Pitta brachyura in the Konkan Maharashtra". Newsletter for Birdwatchers. 41 (4): 48–49.
  25. ^ Singh, H. (2004). "Indian Pitta Pitta brachyura in the Thar Desert". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 101 (2): 319–320.
  26. ^ Devasahayam, S.; Devasahayam, A. (1989). "A note on the food habits of the Indian Pitta". Newsletter for Birdwatchers. 29 (5&6): 8.
  27. ^ Bentham, R. M. (1922). "Breeding of the Indian Pitta Pitta brachyura and the Streaked Wren-Warbler Prinia lepida". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 28 (4): 1135.
  28. PMID 10743858
    .
  29. ^ Rajagopalan, P. K. (1972). "Ixodid Ticks (Acarina: Ixodidae) parasitizing wild birds in the Kyasanur forest disease area of Shimoga District, Mysore State, India". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 69 (1): 55–78.

Other sources

External links

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