Pittidae Pittas
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Introduction
Elusive jewels of Asian forests, these striking passerines are adorned in some of the purest colors of any bird, yet their shyness makes them invisible to all but the most determined, or luckiest, observer. They bound along the forest floor with a springy hop, stopping to toss bits of litter aside in search of large invertebrates, and pausing often to deliver their simple whistled or ringing calls. Many details of their lives are poorly known, but the most northern species are long-distance migrants, and some of the tropical species seem to include altitudinal migration or nomadism in their life history. In a cryptic domed nest, often on or near the ground, a dedicated pair raises their dark-downed chicks.
Habitat
Pittas live in tropical or temperate forests, preferring habitats with extensive undergrowth and moist soil.
Diet and Foraging
Pittas eat a broad variety of invertebrates, with earthworms making up a large proportion of their diet when available. Some pittas take small vertebrates (lizards and snakes), at least one coastal species takes quite a few crabs, and others take large numbers of snails.
Breeding
Pittas are monogamous with biparental care. They build relatively flimsy, loose nests of sticks, leaves, and strips of bark that are globular and usually domed, with an entrance hole in the side, though some build a cup. Nest placement varies widely even within species, with some placing their nest on the ground and others high in a tree. Females typically lay 2 to 5 eggs. Both the male and female are active in nest-building, incubation, and feeding the young. Incubation takes 14 to 18 days, and the chicks fledge after 15 to 17 days in the nest. Post-fledging parental care is very difficult to assess, but it appears to last for no more than about 10 days or so.
Conservation Status
Deforestation and forest conversion are the major threats to the survival of 15 (44%) of the pitta species (7 NT, 6 VU, 2 EN). One of the endangered species is Gurney’s Pitta Hydrornis gurneyi, now restricted to Myanmar; it probably was always a small-ranged species, but it has been dramatically affected by large-scale deforestation. The best hope for this species would be the protection of large tracts of lowland forest. The other endangered species, also with a small population, is Superb Pitta Pitta superba, endemic to a single small island off New Guinea. This region is rich in other island-endemic pitta species and forms of the widespread Erythropitta erythrogaster, and changes in the taxonomic status of the latter may elevate many of these populations to the same endangered species status.
Systematics History
Pittas are part of the Old World radiation of suboscines. They have long been considered a distinct, monophyletic group with ties to the other Old World suboscines. In molecular phylogenies, Pittidae appears to be sister to all the other Old World suboscines, including Eurylaimidae, Sapayoidae, Philepittidae, and Calyptomenidae, but it is not clearly closer to any of these than to the others (Irestedt et al. 2001, Fjeldså et al. 2003, Barker et al. 2004, Moyle et al. 2006a). While they are morphologically similar to the New World Grallariidae, these groups are not closely related, and their similarity is due to convergence. Relationships within the Pittidae have been investigated in several studies based on DNA sequence data (Irestedt et al. 2006a, Moyle et al. 2006a), and we here recognize the three genera proposed by Irestedt et al. (2006a).
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
55.3%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
12.8%
|
Vulnerable |
6.4%
|
Endangered |
2.1%
|
Critically Endangered |
2.1%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0%
|
Extinct |
0%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
2.1%
|
Unknown |
19.1%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2023) Red List. More information