Monday, January 11, 2010

Appreciating These Winter Migrants

Got a little obsessed with Pittas before 2009 closed. Pittas are birds that usually have brightly colored plumage. They are found in tropical Asia and Australasia, although a couple of species live in Africa. We have only one resident Pitta here - Mangrove Pitta. However, it is quite rare on the mainland. Thus when migratory season comes around each Pitta that is sighted is treated like a celebrity with an ensuring paparazzi entourage. This year we got two species of Pitta in close proximity - the Hooded Pitta and the Blue-winged Pitta.While researching for my trip to Thailand, I chanced upon an interesting article. Thailand has 12 species of Pitta, which include the two I've mentioned above. Read the article as it includes photos of each species found in Thailand.

2 comments:

Ron Yeo said...

Hi Shirls, we do have a resident pitta in Singapore actually - the mangrove pitta, Pitta megarhyncha.

It's very rare, and are confined mainly to Ubin and Tekong, and there are possibly a few in Buloh and the surrounding mangroves as well.

So far there has been a few sightings at Buloh, one of which was by me. See http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2008/09/mangrove-pitta-at-sungei-buloh.html

Shirls said...

Thanks Ron for pointing out my error. I will correct it when I am back.