Pitta moluccensis
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The blue-winged pitta (Pitta moluccensis) is a passerine bird in the family Pittidae. It forms a superspecies with three other pittas, the Indian pitta (P. brachyura), the fairy pitta (P. nympha) and the mangrove pitta (P. megarhyncha). A colourful bird, it has a black head with a buff stripe above the eye, a white collar, greenish upper parts, blue wings, buff underparts and a reddish vent area. Its range extends from India to Malaysia, Indonesia, southern China and the Philippines. Its habitat is moist woodland, parks and gardens and it avoids dense forest. It feeds mainly on insects and worms. It breeds in the spring, building an untidy spherical nest on the ground, often near water and between tree roots. A clutch of about five eggs is laid and incubated by both parents, hatching after about sixteen days.
The blue-winged pitta was described by the German naturalist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller in 1776 and given the binomial name Turdus moluccensis. Statius Müller's description was based on a plate showing the "Merle des Moluques" published by Comte de Buffon in his Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. The French name and the specific epithet moluccensis refer... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 2 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 3 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Way Kambas National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Khao Luang National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 6 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 7 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 8 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaohsiung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 2 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 4 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 5 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walsrode World Bird Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Rainforest Wild Asia | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 3 | Penang Bird Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-winged Pitta sighting in Kaohsiung on a given day, based on 18 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 43rd most-seen of the 214 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and June
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-winged Pitta in Kaohsiung on a given day, against under 5% in July to April, the lowest months. Those are among Kaohsiung's wettest months, with about 240 mm of rain a month against 25 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-winged Pitta sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Blue-winged Pitta sightings, Kaohsiung has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia, about 10%) and Singapore (Singapore, under 5%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Blue-winged Pitta that you can see in Kaohsiung (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Light-vented Bulbul (about 90%), Javan Myna (about 80%) and Swinhoe’s White-eye (about 80%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-winged Pitta is recorded against all the birds logged in Kaohsiung (18 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
