Pitta moluccensis
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-winged Pitta sighting in Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary on a given day, based on 49 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 148th most-seen of the 231 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-winged Pitta in Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary on a given day, against under 5% in April to February, the lowest months.
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.
7th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Blue-winged Pitta sightings, Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam, about 10%), Khao Sok National Park (Thailand, about 10%) and Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-winged Pitta is recorded against all the birds logged in Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (49 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
