Pittas | Pittidae

Pitta's | Pitas

Plump, thrush-like ground birds of tropical forest, with a very short tail, a stout bill and long, strong legs for hopping across the forest floor. The plumage is made of sharply defined, jewel-like blocks of colour. In the African Pitta these are a green back, sky-blue spots on wing and rump, a black-and-buff striped head, a buff breast and a scarlet belly. Yet pittas are extraordinarily hard to see: in the gloom of the forest floor the colours dissolve, and a disturbed bird freezes or runs rather than flies. They feed on earthworms, snails and insects, found by tossing leaf litter aside with the bill. When breeding, the male calls from a low branch with a loud, frog-like 'prrroup', jumping up to flash white wing patches. The African Pitta is an intra-African migrant. It breeds during the rains in lowland forest and dense thicket in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, among other countries, then withdraws northward to non-breeding forests in East Africa. It migrates at night, and vagrants sometimes turn up in gardens. The nest is a domed ball of twigs with a side entrance.