| Blue-winged Pitta | |
|---|---|
| Blue-winged Pitta with bands on its legs | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Pittidae |
| Genus: | Pitta |
| Species: | P. moluccensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Pitta moluccensis (Müller, 1776) |
|
The Blue-winged Pitta (Pitta moluccensis) 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.
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The German naturalist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller first described the Blue-winged Pitta in 1776.[2] 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).[3]
Measuring 180–205 mm (7.1–8.1 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.[4] The bill is black, eyes are brown and the legs pale pink.[5] 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[4]
It is regularly found in Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is vagrant in Australia, Christmas Island, Taiwan and Hong Kong.[2] Its natural habitat is subtropical and tropical moist lowland forests.[1]
It is found in a variety of habitats to an altitude of 800 m (2500 ft), including broadleaved forests, parks and gardens, and mangroves,[4] though avoids dense rainforest.[6]
The range is much of southeast Asia and Indochina, from central Myanmar east through Thailand and into peninsular Malaysia.[7] It is a winter visitor to Borneo and Sumatra, and a vagrant to the Philippines and Java.[8] It is a rare vagrant to the northwestern coast of Australia.[5]
The Blue-winged Pitta mostly feeds on worms and insects, hunting them on the ground or from a low branch or perch,[6][9] but they also eat hard-shelled snails.[10][11][12]