Blue-winged Pitta
Encyclopedia
The Blue-winged Pitta is a passerine
bird
in the Pittidae family native to Australia
and Southeast Asia
. It forms a superspecies
with three other pittas and has no subspecies.
Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller
first described the Blue-winged Pitta in 1776. It forms a superspecies
with the Indian Pitta
(P. brachyura), Fairy Pitta
(P. nympha) and Mangrove Pitta
(P. megarhyncha). Alternate common names include: Lesser Blue-winged/Little Blue-winged/Moluccan Pitta Brève à ailes bleues (in French), Kleine Blauflügelpitta (in German), and Pita Aliazul (in Spanish).
Measuring 180 to 205 mm (7.1 to 8.1 in) in length, the Blue-winged Pitta has a black head with a buff-coloured eyebrow-line (supercilium), white chin and buff underparts. The shoulders and mantle are greenish, the wings are bright blue, and the vent is reddish. The bill is black, eyes are brown and the legs pale pink. Juveniles have similar patterned plumage but are duller. It resembles the Mangrove Pitta
but can be distinguished by its shorter bill. The loud call has been transcribed as taew-laew taew-laew
, Cambodia
, China
, India
, Indonesia
, Laos
, Malaysia, Myanmar
, the Philippines
, Singapore
, Thailand
, and Vietnam
. It is vagrant in Australia
, Christmas Island
, Taiwan
and Hong Kong
. Its natural habitat
is subtropical and tropical moist lowland forest
s.
It is found in a variety of habitats to an altitude of 800 m (2500 ft), including broadleaved forests, parks and gardens, and mangroves, though avoids dense rainforest.
The range is much of southeast Asia and Indochina, from central Myanmar east through Thailand and into peninsular Malaysia. It is a winter visitor to Borneo and Sumatra, and a vagrant to the Philippines and Java. It is a rare vagrant to the northwestern coast of Australia.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
in the Pittidae family native to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. It forms a superspecies
Superspecies
A superspecies is a group of at least two more or less distinctive species with approximately parapatric distributions. Not all species complexes, whether cryptices or ring species are superspecies, and vice versa, but many are...
with three other pittas and has no subspecies.
Taxonomy
The German naturalistNatural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller
Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller
Philipp Ludwig Statius Muller was a German zoologist.Statius Muller was born in Esens, and was Professor of Natural Science at Erlangen. Between 1773 and 1776, he published a German translation of Linnaeus's Natursystem...
first described the Blue-winged Pitta in 1776. It forms a superspecies
Superspecies
A superspecies is a group of at least two more or less distinctive species with approximately parapatric distributions. Not all species complexes, whether cryptices or ring species are superspecies, and vice versa, but many are...
with the Indian Pitta
Indian Pitta
The Indian Pitta is a medium-sized passerine bird. It breeds mainly in the sub-Himalayas and winters in southern India and Sri Lanka. These birds are found in thick undergrowth and are often more easily detected by their calls...
(P. brachyura), Fairy Pitta
Fairy Pitta
The Fairy Pitta, Pitta nympha, is a small passerine bird. It breeds in north-east Asia in Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan, migrant in Thailand and winters mainly on the island of Borneo in east Malaysia, Brunei, and Kalimantan in Indonesia....
(P. nympha) and Mangrove Pitta
Mangrove Pitta
The Mangrove Pitta is a species of passerine bird in the Pittidae family native to Southeast Asia. It is part of a superspecies but has no recognized subspecies.- Taxonomy :...
(P. megarhyncha). Alternate common names include: Lesser Blue-winged/Little Blue-winged/Moluccan Pitta Brève à ailes bleues (in French), Kleine Blauflügelpitta (in German), and Pita Aliazul (in Spanish).
Description
Mangrove Pitta
The Mangrove Pitta is a species of passerine bird in the Pittidae family native to Southeast Asia. It is part of a superspecies but has no recognized subspecies.- Taxonomy :...
but can be distinguished by its shorter bill. The loud call has been transcribed as taew-laew taew-laew
Distribution and habitat
It is regularly found in BruneiBrunei
Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Malaysia, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. It is vagrant in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Christmas Island
Christmas Island
The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and ENE of the Cocos Islands....
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Its natural habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
is subtropical and tropical moist lowland forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s.
It is found in a variety of habitats to an altitude of 800 m (2500 ft), including broadleaved forests, parks and gardens, and mangroves, though avoids dense rainforest.
The range is much of southeast Asia and Indochina, from central Myanmar east through Thailand and into peninsular Malaysia. It is a winter visitor to Borneo and Sumatra, and a vagrant to the Philippines and Java. It is a rare vagrant to the northwestern coast of Australia.