Fairy Pitta Pitta nympha 仙八色鶇
Category I. Scarce passage migrant, more numerous in autumn, to wooded areas.
IDENTIFICATION
Apr. 2019, Kenneth Lam.
16-20 cm. Broad black mask only just reaches top of eye, warm brown crown, long warm buff supercilium and white throat. Green upperparts with blue wing covert patch restricted to lesser coverts; in open wing black outer part of wing has a small white patch. The blue and white wing patches are smaller than on Blue-winged Pitta, the underparts are much less richly coloured, and the sides of the crown are more extensively warm brown.
VOCALISATIONS
The advertising call has been heard in HK both during daytime and at night (the latter in autumn). This is a repeated loud pair of double notes of equal emphasis: ‘chu-wee chu-wee’. The second note in each pair is at a higher pitch than the first. Differs from Blue-winged Pitta in that it has a more whistled quality and a slightly less hurried delivery, which are more uniform in tone and lack a terminal fall in pitch.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Occurs in dense shrubland or forest, with records from widespread areas, though often at sites where migrant numbers are concentrated into a small area of habitat.
OCCURRENCE
Fairy Pitta is a scarce passage migrant, with approximately two-thirds of records occurring in autumn. In spring it has occurred from 10 April to 20 May, and in autumn from 26 August to 8 October. In addition, there is a summer record of one during 22-24 July 1967. Only singles have been recorded with certainty, and most are single day records due no doubt to the difficulty of observing this species; the maximum recorded stay is ten days.
Approximately 50% of records have occurred since 2016, with eight of these in 2020, the best year so far. It is likely that this is due to increased observer activity.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Typically shy and retiring. The advertising call of males has been heard in daytime in spring and at night in autumn.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds in central and south China away from the coast, South Korea (Jeju Island), south Japan and Taiwan; winters in Borneo (Erritzoe 2020). Cheng (1987) stated that it is uncommon and occurs as a summer visitor to eastern Guangxi, northern and coastal Guangdong, southern Fujian and Taiwan, and occasionally as a migrant to Jiangsu, Anhui and southern Henan. It has also been found in central Guangdong in late May (Lewthwaite 1996). Vagrants have occurred as far north as the Hebei coast (GJC pers. obs.).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: VULNERABLE. Population of 1,500 to 7,000 mature individuals suspected to be in rapid decline owing to deforestation in its breeding range compounded by trapping for the cagebird trade in some areas.
Figure 1.
Cheng, T. H. 1987. A Synopsis of the Avifauna of China. Science Press, Beijing.
Erritzoe, J. (2020). Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.faipit1.01
Lewthwaite, R. W. 1996. Forest birds of Southeast China. Hong Kong Bird Report 1995: 150-203.
