Nicely – I solely noticed two species, the commonest ones at Sepilok, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. However they’re properly price their very own publish, despite the fact that I can’t actually write an excessive amount of about them. Not that they want many phrases anyway.
One is the Black-crowned Pitta, a species endemic to Borneo with quite a lot of aliases together with black-headed pitta, black-and-crimson pitta, black-and-scarlet pitta, and black-crowned garnet pitta (if you wish to establish it by its monograms on its shirts, they all the time begin with the letter B and finish with a P).
The outline of this pitta on eBird does its appears justice: “Dazzling pitta … Midnight blue above and blinding scarlet under, with a darkish head, vivid blue wing coverts, and a glowing silver line trailing backward behind the attention.” Makes me really feel a bit unhappy no one has ever referred to as me a blinding man …
The Latin species identify of ussheri is derived from one Herbert Taylor John Ussher 1836-1880), a British diplomat who presumably contributed his fair proportion of colonial violence and racism (in any other case he wouldn’t have been promoted quite a lot of instances) however who additionally was a naturalist who wrote “Notes on the ornithology of the Gold Coast”.
Typical for any such particular person, he died younger, at about age 44 – undecided why however Europeans had been usually not excellent at dealing with tropical illnesses. The British then posthumously named a fort after him (Ussher Fort in Ghana) – not a terrific consolidation if you find yourself already useless, however then, not many issues are. Wikipedia helpfully provides that these days, the fort opening hours are 9:00am to 4:30pm from Mondays to Saturdays together with public holidays.
The decision of this pitta is attention-grabbing and fairly attribute – the HBW calls it ventriloquial, which implies “The artwork of projecting one’s voice so that it appears to come from one other supply, as from a picket determine”.
And certainly, once I first noticed the pitta, I assumed there was a second one round however then realized that the one I noticed was making the sound I heard – however with out opening its invoice and with out the sound clearly coming from the path of the chicken.
The HBW is a bit unsure about its conservation standing, calling it Least Concern in a single sentence after which Close to Threatened within the subsequent. It could be about time for the HBW (now hosted by Cornell College) to rent some part-time editor utilizing the cash I pay for my subscription to the location.
One examine discovered that there appears to be some work sharing among the many breeding adults – the male had the next visitation charge of the nest whereas the feminine was the one one which brooded. If Adam Smith had recognized this, he would have identified that his pin manufacturing facility instance roughly has the identical rationale behind it.
The opposite is the Hooded Pitta – a pitta that could be a bit simpler to look at because it comes out within the open a bit extra. It additionally fortunately calls within the early morning, a minimum of the place I discovered it, a service extremely appreciated by chicken watchers like me.
It’s enjoyable to look at and hearken to – see right here and right here.
Nonetheless, it’s cursed with a reasonably unappealing species identify – sordida, or “shabby”, which makes you wonder if the particular person giving the species this identify had truly ever seen the chicken. Because it doesn’t look shabby in any respect.
In actual fact, eBird rightly calls it a “dark-headed great thing about tropical forests”.
The HBW states that there are 12 subspecies however supplies solely 2 pictures, one in every of a male and one in every of a feminine, each of which look precisely the identical to me, besides that the feminine appears a bit fatter (potential discrimination?).
Reportedly, it’s the most widespread of all pittas, which apparently requires the existence of so many subspecies. Or is that this the mistaken logic?
Sadly, the Hooded Pitta is a frequent sufferer of collisions with buildings, for instance in Singapore (supply).
Sadly, based on the HBW, this pitta can also be often caught and bought within the cage chicken commerce in Indonesia regardless of having protected standing. It could be a good suggestion not solely to cross legal guidelines but additionally to implement them – only a thought.
Hooded Pittas are even taken as meals in Assam, based on the HBW. Humanity is overrated.
