Brève iris

Identification

The rainbow pitta is 16 to 18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) in length, and weighs 52–88 g (1.8–3.1 oz). Females weigh 67 g (2.4 oz), slightly more on average than males, which weigh 62 g (2.2 oz). It typically stands upright while looking for food or resting, with the legs slightly bent, and the body held at a 60–70° angle. It moves around by hopping. Its head, neck, breast, flanks and upper belly are velvet black, its upper parts are olive-green, and its lower belly and undertail coverts are scarlet red. The wings are green with a golden sheen and have a shining blue patch on the lesser wing coverts, and the flight feathers and underwing are black. The tail is olive-green with a black base and the uppertail coverts sometimes have a silvery-blue band across them. It has a black bill, pink legs, brown eyes and a chestnut stripe along each side of its crown. Many individuals display the pitta family's characteristic dark streaks, which can be arrow-shaped or stripes, through the middle of the feathers of the upper part of the body; examination of study skins have found around 60% of rainbow pittas have them. This varies somewhat regionally, as birds from Darwin were found to have none. Uniquely in the pitta family the streaks are not dusky or blackish but are instead bronze-coloured in this species.<p>The plumage is essentially the same for both sexes; females may have slightly more buff-yellow in their flanks and a slightly different shade of red on the lower belly, but these differences do not make the sexes distinguishable by plumage. The subspecies P. i. johnstoneiana is very similar to the nominate race, except the chestnut eyebrow is larger, as is the wing-spot, but the bird overall is slightly smaller.

Taxonomie

The rainbow pitta was described by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1842, which is based on a specimen collected on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory of Australia. The specific name iris is taken from the Ancient Greek for "rainbow"; this is the origin of the common name as well.<p>The species was once treated as a subspecies of the noisy pitta of eastern Australia, and was also treated as being in a species complex with that species, the elegant pitta and the black-faced pitta, although that arrangement was not universally accepted. The 2006 study of the nuclear DNA of the pittas and other Old World suboscines found that its closest relative was the superb pitta of Manus Island off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The same study resulted in the pitta family being split from one genus into three, this species remaining in the genus Pitta.<p>The species was long thought to be monotypic, but in 1999 the Western Australian population was split into the subspecies P. i. johnstoneiana by Richard Schodde and Ian J. Mason.

Nom scientifique

Pitta iris

Autorité

Gould, 1842

Ordre

Passériformes

Famille

Pittidae

Genre

Pitta

Répartition et habitat

The rainbow pitta is endemic to the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and is found from sea-level to 380 m (1,250 ft). It is the only species of pitta endemic to Australia. In the Northern Territory it is found in the Top End, from Darwin east to the edge of the Arnhem Escarpment. Further east it is found on Groote Eylandt and the Wessel Islands. In Western Australia it is restricted to the coastal Kimberley, from Walcott Inlet to Middle Osborn Island. It is also found on some of the islands of the Bonaparte Archipelago.<p>It is found most commonly in monsoon forest and in adjacent vine-scrub and gallery forest, and also occurs in eucalypt forest, bamboo forests, paperbark forest and scrub, Lophostemon forests and the edges of mangrove forests (but never in mangrove forests themselves). It is mostly found in closed forests, but is also found in more open forests. It has sometimes been found in plantations of introduced pines, and has even bred in that habitat. This species is one of only two pittas that have been recorded feeding on open lawns in towns.<p>The species is sedentary, most pairs occupying their territories year-round. Some local movements to more marginal habitats have been recorded during the dry season. Its movements can be difficult to trace during the post-breeding season, as it is silent during the annual moult, and generally shy throughout the year. Young birds disperse from their parents' territories, seeking territories of their own. One banded juvenile was discovered 6.5 km (4.0 mi) from its native territory.

Migration

Espèce sédentaire

Comportement

Mode de migration: Espèce sédentaire.

Conservation

Tendance de la population: en déclin.

Tendance de la population

en déclin