Bird of the Week: Pittas
Not much to say but "OMFG LOOK AT THIS BIRD."
This is going to be one of those weeks on Bird of the Week where I don’t have much to say besides “OMFG LOOK AT BIRD.” Some birds thrill us with their rich interior lives or eccentric behavior, and some birds just want to hang out, eat bugs, and look freaking amazing. Today’s bird falls into that second category. Meet…the pitta.
No, not pita, that is the Mediterranean flatbread. This is the pitta, a small passerine bird species whose variants can be seen across Asia, Australia, and Africa. Pittas are just cool little birds. They spend a lot of time by themselves, they eat worms and termites and ants and a bunch of other insects and also seeds and things, and they live in forests, and then they breed other little pittas who do the same thing. And when they sing it sounds like a whistle! (Scroll down for that video.)
Mostly, though, pittas look…wow wow wow how they look. That is really the point of this blog, to show you the pittas and how they look. So let’s get to it. There are lots of different kinds of pittas and you would faint with amazement if you saw any one of them in the wild. That is how oh my god these birds are. Here are just a few kinds of pittas.
Malayan Banded Pitta
I WASN’T KIDDING.
Gurney’s Pitta
Black-crowned pitta
African pitta
Indian pitta
I know we say it a lot but how are these birds real???
Mangrove pitta
Sulawesi pitta
Again…how is this real…..
Hooded pitta
Schneider’s pitta
Simply marvelous. Of course, like basically every other bird we talk about, pittas are threatened by habitat loss, aka HUMAN BEINGS. So, as we say all the time, humanity, please stop being a bunch of stupid idiots and actually save the planet for the pittas!
OK, here is the video of the whistle-like song. I love it so much 😭😭😭😭
A reminder: you can check out our complete Bird of the Week list here, and get in touch with your bird suggestions at hello@discourseblog.com.