Sulawesi Pitta
Erythropitta celebensis
A round-bodied, short-tailed, long-legged terrestrial bird with a red belly. Broad, iridescent blue chest band is bordered with thick black lines. Reddish-brown crown shows an indistinct blue line. Also shows paler brown cheeks and green upperparts. Juvenile is brown with a pale bill base and gray eyes. Singles or pairs forage on forest floor in lowlands and foothills. Unmistakable in limited range on Sulawesi and adjacent islands. Song is a drawn-out, two-part whistle with a longer, trembling first note followed by a falling, mournful note: “waaaaaaaop-wooowow,” as is typical of the genus.
Taxonomy
The Sulawesi pitta was formally described in 1845 by the German naturalists Salomon Müller and Hermann Schlegel based on a specimen collected by the Dutch narualist Eltio Alegondas Forsten near Tondano on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. They placed the species in the genus Pitta and coined the binomial name Pitta celebensis, where the specific epithet is a former name for Sulawesi. The Sulawesi pitta is now placed in the genus Erythropitta that was introduced in 1854 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte.<p>Three subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Erythropitta celebensis
- Authority
- (Müller, S & Schlegel, 1845)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Pittidae
- Genus
- Erythropitta
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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