The Science of Birds - Random Bird Thursday: A Colorful, Dumpy Bird That Chills With Chimps

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

In each Random Bird Thursday (RBT) episode, the goal is to highlight a bird species that probably isn't going to get featured in a full-length podcast episode. These are birds we might overlook, even though they certainly deserve some appreciation and attention. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!The featured species in this episode is the Green-breasted Pitta (Pitta reichenowi).Sound Citations:Magnus Wadstein, XC534681. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/534681.Jesse Fagan, XC146919. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/146919.Support the show

Hello and welcome. This is The Science of Birds. I am your host, Ivan Philipson. The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners. And believe it or not, it is Random Bird Thursday. Random Bird Thursday podcast episodes are relatively short and sweet. In each of them, I spotlight a bird species that I probably won't feature in a full-length episode. episode. And you know, there are over 11,000 bird species in the world. So Random Bird Thursday gives us an opportunity to celebrate one of those species that we might otherwise

overlook. So, which species are we talking about today? The only way to find out is to push the random bird selector button. So here we go. Okay, awesome. We have, you wait for it, wait for it. We have the green-breasted pitta. Pitta, Rikta. Pitta is spelled P-I-T-T-A, that's the genus, but also it's the green-breasted pitta, and then Rikanoi is R-E-I-C-H-E-N-O-W-I. The green-breasted pitta is an elusive and colorful species from Africa, and I'm excited to talk about it, so let's get into it. Now I will preface this by saying that there's not a ton of information about this species,

so get ready, this is going to truly be a short. and sweet random bird Thursday episode. The green-breasted pitta is a small to medium-sized bird. It's about 6.5 to 7.5 inches long from beak to tail, and there's not much of a tail, it's pretty short, and I should say that that is 17 to 19 centimeters. Some might describe this bird as dumpy. A dumpy using that as an adjective, always kind of sad,

sounds like an insult, but it is, I think if it's like an egg, shaped bird. It's got a short tail, an upright posture, kind of a large head, and some have described this and other pittas as being somewhat thrush-like. So imagine a thrush but with a really short tail in terms of the shape of the bill and the head and all that. And the bill is black, but the juvenile birds have orange bills with a distinct black central band. But what about the plumage? What does the plumage look like? So as I said, this is a colorful bird. The back is a deep olive green, and the breast is indeed green as well, but it's kind of more of a lime or softer green, lighter green.

The head is black with a golden buff supercilium, so that thick eyebrow line over the eye. The throat is white, and it's bordered by a black line, and that white goes back towards the nape of the neck, not quite meeting in the back. Okay, so you've got dark green back, black head with this pale kind of orange buff supercilium, white throat, pale green upper breast and then a really red belly. A rich red color on the belly all the way to the vent and the undertale coverts. The wings are black and you have beautiful pale blue tips to many of the wing feathers. and when the bird is flying, the wings look dark or black, but then they have these bright white spots in the middle. Now, the close relative and the species that look similar is the African pitta,

and to distinguish the two, the green-breasted pitta has more of that green breast, that is key, rather than having a buff-colored breast like the African pitta. And it has that white throat bordered by a black line, so that's helpful. Now let's consider the voice, or at least the sounds made, by this bird. It does have some vocalizations. These are described as short, bell-like whistles, and those are often repeated at a pretty quick rate, something like 10 per every 14 seconds, so a little slower than one second in between each. And it makes a couple other vocalizations, one of which is described as being kind of frog-like, and it's written out as Proop, P-R-O-O-O-P.

Not poop, but Proop. Gotta be very careful there. but perhaps the more familiar sound is this sound that's made by the wings, either during flight or during a display. And this is a mechanical sound. It's made by the feathers, not by the bird's cinerary, it's not by its voice. And written now, this is written as B-R-R-R-T, like br-t or pr-R-T, and you can decide for yourself if that sounds like what you're hearing, because I've got this recording for you here.

So let's listen to recording of the green-breasted pitta. This is, again, the mechanical sound made by the wings. This is a male during courtship. He's making a display, and this is the sound of his wings. The green-breasted pitta is terrestrial, so it's walking around on the ground primarily, maybe getting up into some low branches. Now, despite its brilliant colors,

it's hard to see, hard to find, because it's super shy, and it's a skulker. Birders rarely get a glimpse of this thing because it likes to dash between shadowy areas on the forest floor, keeping just out of sight. So it's a real challenge. But the good news is if you see one, there's usually another one in the area.

These birds often occur in pairs. Moving on now to talk about the name of this bird, its scientific name, as well as the family, distribution habitat, and so on. So, as I said, the scientific name is Pitta-Richanoi, and that specific epithet, the second part, comes from Professor George Anton Eugen Reichenau. Or Reicheno. I guess I said Reichenau, but Reicheno.

An ornithologist that lived in the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. So the scientific name is Pitta, Reichenowai. So being a pitta, this bird is in the family, Pittadi, which includes 46 species, all of them in the old world. Africa has just two pitta species, and we already mentioned the other one, which is the African pitta, Pitta Angolensis. Now, at various times, the two birds have been considered the same species, but currently they are separated. And apparently, though, there is some hybridization between the two. I'll do an episode on the family pitidae at some point. I know I say that a lot.

I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll do an episode on this, on that. But it's true. I have every intention of making all these episodes I ever mentioned as long as I live long enough and I don't lose my voice. So, an episode on Pitas someday I think would be really cool. In any case, that family seems to have had an origin in Africa about 20 million years ago. But interestingly, there are only the two species in Africa now. All the others are in Asia.

So in India, Southeast Asia, China, and so on. and it seems the split between the two African species and its Asian, or their Asian cousins, that occurred about 10 million years ago. But if we're just looking at the green-breasted pitta, its current distribution is in the tropical forests of Central and East Africa. And its distribution occurs in a number of patches, so it's a disjunct distribution. The biggest patch stretches from Uganda into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. but it's also found in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Cabone, and so on. And for its habitat, it prefers deep, dense, moist, lowland forests. It's often found in old secondary forests with dense undergrowth,

but it also inhabits primary forests, so those that have not been cut down or damaged, as well as in old plantations that have some forest growth. In Uganda, which is where many birders encounter this species, it occurs at altitudes between 3,600 feet and 14,600 feet. So way up there. And in meters, that's 1,100 to 1,400 meters. I don't think there's a lot of data on the movements of this species,

but as far as we know, it is probably sedentary, so it probably does not migrate. And I'm happy to report that the IUCN, on the red list, this species is considered least concern, so we can rest easy at night, at least for now, knowing that this bird is not in immediate danger of disappearing. Now, there aren't necessarily specific threats for this species, but there's probably missing information just because it is such a skulky bird that's hard to find.

We don't know a whole lot about it. But because deforestation is a phenomenon in many parts of this bird's range, that is almost certainly a threat, And in Uganda, where this bird is often encountered, there's been heavy logging that has been shown to reduced populations of forest-dependent species like the green-breasted pitta. Now, I know you've been wondering the whole time, what does this bird eat? I cannot rest until I know what this bird eats. Well, you can guess, right? Maybe you can. It eats invertebrates. So again, it's running around on the forest floor. It hops around like a thrush and it searches through the leaf litter. That bill is used to toss bits of leaf to the side. And what it's looking for are things like beetles and beetle larvae, hairless caterpillars, maggots, termites, little millipedes, centipedes, even snails. As far as we know, this is a monogamous, spree. species. One male pairs up with one female for the breeding season, and there is courtship involved, as I mentioned with that wing drum display, the wing sound, the brt. This happens when a male gets up

on a mossy branch in the canopy or the mid-story of the forest, and he hops into the air, making that display with his wings, making that sound. I've heard this display called a Twitch display, although I'm not really sure that's the official name among ornithologists. But yeah, if you're looking for this elusive species in the forest and you hear that sound, that is really exciting because you can sort of pinpoint where that male is displaying. So after courtship, the birds pair up, they build a nest and make a family. The nest is a big dome-shaped structure, and it has a wide side entrance. It's made out of twigs and vines that are interwoven into this big mass of dead leaves. The interior is lined with soft things like leaves and little rootlets, and the whole thing

is placed about 1.5 to 2 meters off the ground on a horizontal branch or a trunk. So in feet, that's about 5 to 8 feet off the ground. The pair of pittas does seem to maintain a territory around the nest, and it's the male that claims that patch of forest with his calls and his displays. And so they've got this nest and their territory and then the eggs are laid. They're about two to three per clutch. They're creamy white with little dark brown or red brown spots and blotches. Both mom and dad care for the eggs and the chicks. And when the chicks are born, they're covered in dark down. They get cared for by mom and dad until 15 to 18 days and that's when they fledg. And who knows what happens to them after that. Again, there's not a ton of information about the life

of this species. And we don't know how long they live either. Now, believe it or not, these random bird Thursday episodes are truly random. I do push a button and it brings up a random bird. And unless it's a species that I think I'm going to do a full episode on or a species we've already talked about, then I go ahead and do it. And so just so happens that the last time, the last episode and this one, these are both species that I've seen. I have been fortunate enough to see the green-breasted pita, and that was in Uganda back in 2019. I saw it in Kibale National Park. And if you look on e-bird, that is where most e-birders tend to see this species.

It's the most accessible spot. And one of the reasons is, you know, actually this bird was considered almost impossible to find for a while until in Kibale National Park it was, quote unquote, rediscovered by a ranger there named Harriet Kamagisha. And Harriet is who I was with when I was looking at. of this bird in 2019. And I consider Harriet a friend. I've done a couple tours in Uganda, and she's really cool. And so it's really neat to see her name come up when I'm looking at information about

the green-breasted pitta. And in that forest, one of the big reasons we go to that forest or that you might want to go to that forest is because that's a great place to see wild chimpanzees. There are troops of chimpanzees, so why are looking for the chimpanzees, you can do some birding, and maybe, just maybe, see the green-breasted pitta. And so there we are, Pitta Rikanoi. Maybe you've seen this bird. Let me know if you have.

Otherwise, I will talk to you in the next episode of The Signs of Birds. Thanks for listening. Have a great day. Cheers.