For many birdwatchers in Thailand, and other parts of the
tropics, a sighting of any pitta species is the pinnacle of
a day's birding. Indeed, when discussing the birds of Thailand
with other birders the conversation always quickly progresses
to subject of pittas. The difficulty in finding this group
of birds combined with their ground-dwelling habits and colourful
and/or unusual plumages makes pittas very desirable indeed.
Thailand has fourteen species of pitta which are of varying
difficulty to find and to see all fourteen of them in Thailand
would take a huge amount of effort not to mention discovering
one species that has never actually been observed in the wild
in the country. Finding pittas in Thailand relies on knowing
both where and when to look for them, with sightings at some
times of the year being almost impossible but becoming much
more likely at other times. Below are notes on all twelve
of Thailand's pitta species, including where birdwatchers
are most likely to encounter them. I have listed them in the
order they appear in "Birds
of Thailand" published by Lynx Edicions in 2018.
If
anyone wants any further advice on how to find pittas in Thailand
please don't hesitate to contact me for help:
nickupton@thaibirding.com
Confined to broadleaved evergreen forest below 200 metres
in the Malay peninsula, the only place in Thailand this fantastic
bird is likely to be found is in Hala-Bala
Wildlife Sanctuary along the river accessible from the
research station at the Bala sector. This very rare resident
exists probably in only very small numbers in Thailand due
to deforestation of the lowlands.
Those lucky enough to get to the extreme south of Thailand
to look for this bird should listen out for its drawn out
monotone whistle, which is very similar to that of Malaysian
Rail-babbler, along lowland river valleys. A few people, including
myself, have been lucky and found Garnet Pitta at the Bala
section of Hala-Bala Wildlfie Sanctuary where it is should
be looked for along the rather leech-infested trail across
the stream at the rear of the research station. This species
usually calls from slightly elevated perches and in thorny
palms. Due to the extreme rarity of this species in Thailand
the only time it is likely to be detected is when it is calling
during the breeding season; mid February to June and perhaps
into July/August is when it should be calling, outside of
those times it is highly likely to be silent. There used to
be fairly regular reports of birds from territory at Bala
but these dried up around 2015 and rumours are that someone
trapped them. If this is correct it may be that Garnet Pitta
is now extinct in Thailand.
Although in Thailand Garnet Pitta should be regarded as critically
endangered, internationally it is listed as "near threatened"
and it is much easier to find in Peninsula Malaysia, parts
of Sumatra and in Borneo.
Eared
Pitta is an uncommon resident and rarely seen by visiting
birdwatchers. However, in Lekagul
and Round it is listed as an uncommon to common resident
and it may be that the low number of sightings is due
to the fact that its habitat below 900 metres is not as
widely visited as it might be.
Sightings do occur from Khao
Yai National Park, particularly from the trails that
are close to the headquarters and Eared Pitta has also
been photographed from Kaeng
Krachan National Park too: I have seen and heard it
between streams 2 and 3 near Ban Krang on several occasions,
particularly in the breeding season.
Eared Pitta has also been photographed on a number of
occasions from blinds around Kaeng Krachan; a morning
or afternoon in one of these blinds can be arranged through
the owners of Ban Maka.
A number
of tourist lodges around the southwest edge of Khao Yai have
access to low level forest and at one of these, near Nakorn
Nayok, Peter
Ericsson photographed an Eared Pitta - so this is perhaps
an option for those determined to get a sighting.
Despite the fact that Eared Pitta is not commonly seen in Thailand
it is fairly widespread, but mainly confined to regions rarely
visited by birdwatchers. Its international conservation status
is "Least concern" as classified by IUCN.
Unless you are very lucky you will have to be very determined
and focused to see Eared Pitta in Thailand.
Take a look at this video clip of an Eared Pitta taken in Khao
Yai National Park in 2004: Eared
Pitta clip.
Rusty-naped Pitta is one of the hardest pittas to observe
in Thailand under normal circumstances as it lives in montane
forest with dense undergrowth and steep slopes. However, it
is not actually that rare where it occurs in northern and
western Thailand and its call carries a long way when it is
active, usually between the months of mid March and end of
July.
Almost all Rusty-naped Pitta sightings in Thailand occur when
birds are visiting photographic feeding stations. This is
usually restricted to the driest months of February and March
although sometimes if they become very habituated to receiving
food they may be showing from December and into April. Strangely
enough the times at which Rusty-naped Pitta is easiest to
see at stakeouts, does not coincide with when it is most active
and vocal. There are hardly any good sightings of this species
away from photographic stakeouts despite large numbers of
birders visiting areas where it occurs and going out specifically
to look for one will almost certainly end in failure. Add
to this that Rusty-naped Pitta is usually unresponsive to
call playback and you have one of the most frustrating birds
in the country.
At Doi Chiang Dao
Rusty-naped Pitta used to be frequently seen at the beginning
of the "nature trail" and in the temple gully. Rather
too many people resorted to playing the bird's call at this
location and now I havent heard of any sightings there for
some time; the trail has become extremely overgrown too so
it is probably not a good place to look. On the higher altitudes
at Kaeng Krachan National
Park this species can frequently be heard calling in the
wet season but getting a sighting of one there is exceptionally
rare. Rusty-naped Pittas have appeared at feeding stations
at Doi Lang,
Doi Ang Kang and
Doi Tung over recent years but none seem predictable from
one year to the next. One of the most reliable sites has been
at Mae Wong National Park
where birds have visited a stakeout in most years BUT not
in all years. Doi
Inthanon has also been a site where people have seen Rusty-naped
Pitta but while it may be possible to track one down when
they are calling and when birding alone, due to the nature
of the narrow trails and steep hillsides it is highly unlikely
that birders will be successful here in a group. In 2019 Rusty-naped
Pittas visited a photo stakeout at Mae Fa Luang Arboretum
in Chiang Rai province and were very reliable for some months.
In 2020 they were seen on an irregular basis at the same site.
So, although Rusty-naped Pitta is quite widespread and almost
every year there is at least one bird appearing at a photo
stakeout, it is hard to predict where and when the best chance
of seeing one will be.
Rusty-naped Pitta is one of the most infrequently seen of
the pittas in Thailand, it is an uncommon resident whilst
the international listing of Birdlife
International is of "least concern".
Videos, calls and photos of Rusty-naped
Pitta on Internet Bird Collection
4.
Blue-naped PittaHydrornis nipalensis
Blue-naped
Pitta
Blue-naped
Pitta was predicted as a possible addition to the Thai
bird list in Round
& Lekagul's A guide to the Birds of Thailand and
was finally discovered on 1st March 2009 at around 900m
above sea level at Pu Suan Sai national park, Loei province.
This species has not yet been photographed in Thailand
and was found in thick bamboo forest, so the opportunities
for viewing it and photography are not good. It has been
seen by just a handful of observers and very few have
even heard it. I was lucky enough to hear one call twice
at Pu Suan sai in early July 2010 but the dense bamboo
and rampant leeches gave me no chance to see the bird
- I have been told that this species calls from trees
and other elevated perches.
It is quite possible, even likely, that Blue-naped Pitta
occurs in a few other areas of northern/northeastern Thailand.
Internationally Blue-naped Pitta is listed by the IUCN
as "least concern" as it has a very wide range
throughout Asia even though it is thought to be declining
in many areas.
Blue-rumped
Pitta is confined, in Thailand, to the extreme southeast
of the country. The most accessible place for birdwatchers
to find this species is Khao
Soi Dao in Chantaburi province, although
there are a few other national parks in the region which
have limited visiting access where it may also be found:
Khao Kitchakut and Khao Srabab. Very few visiting birdwatchers
(or resident birders) get to see this pitta as Khao Soi
Dao is not a heavily visited area which is a shame as
the habitat is of excellent quality.
Whilst Blue-rumped Pitta has a very restricted range in
Thailand and is an uncommon resident, it has quite a large
range, stretching from south east Thailand, through Indochina
and into China itself. The conservation status is listed
as "least concern" by the IUCN.
Giant
Pitta is a very rare resident and very seldom seen by
visiting or resident birdwatchers alike. This species
is confined to evergreen forests of the lowlands in the
peninsula and has been seen on a very few occassions at
Kaeng Krachan
National Park although it is almost a mythical
bird at this location. It has also been videoed at Khao
Nor Chu Chi some years ago and a few have
also been lucky enough to see Giant Pitta on the riverside
loop accessible from the research centre at Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary.
In March 2011 I was lucky enough to see a female Giant
Pitta on two occasions when the forest was extremely dry
and the only water was a few puddles in the stream bed
between stream crossings 2 and 3. Others also saw the
male during this time and perhaps these are the best conditions
under which to find this bird.
Whilst Giant Pitta is a rare resident and probably endangered
in Thailand due to lowland deforestation it is only listed
as "near threatened" by the IUCN
and as with many other lowland specialists it is far more
likely to be encountered in Malaysia or Indonesia.
Don't come to Thailand expecting to see a Giant
Pitta, it is almost never seen, other countries will give
you a better chance.
Blue Pitta
is one of Thailand's most common pittas, occurring in moist
forest from the plains to about 1500 metres. This species
is frequently observed by determined visiting birdwatchers
at Khao Yai National
Park on numerous different trails and Kaeng
Krachan National Park in damp gullies and similar spots.
Although not that many birders visit Nam
Nao National Park a good number of those that do locate
Blue Pitta at various times of the year. Whilst Blue Pitta's
range includes most of the west and the north, as well as
the south east and parts of the northeast, it is absent from
most of the south.
Over recent
years Blue Pitta has visited several photo stakeouts close
to Kaeng Krachan national park and this has presented large
numbers of birders with excellent views; this accompanying
photo was taken at one of those locations.
Although Blue Pitta is a fairly common species it is often
infuriatingly difficult to see. For those who are tempted
to use call playback, Blue Pitta usually does not come stright
to the origin but instead circles it at just a range far enough
away to make it hard to see. Outside of the breeding season
(March-June) this bird seldom calls making it more or less
a lottery in finding it, however, the dry season (December-March)
is when these birds are most reliable at any stakeout that
they may be visiting.
The Blue Pitta's call is "pleoow-whit" but particularly
at Kaeng Krachan and parts of Khao Yai replays of this call
are being overused meaning that many individuals are no longer
reacting, making them very difficult to see.
Reflecting its situation as a fairly common resident, the
Blue Pitta's international conservation status is "least
concern" as stated by the IUCN.
Check out my unique design Blue Pitta T Shirt available
in various sizes - Blue
Pitta T-shirt.
The
small population of Gurney's Pitta still holds out at
Khao Nor
Chu Chi, near Krabi, with around 15 estimated.
Although a few individuals may still hold out in nearby
forest fragments and a large
population has been discovered in Myanmar, KNC is
the best chance for most birders to see this species.
Most birders make the frustrating wait on U-trail in order
to get a glimpse of Gurney's Pitta but there are also
frequent sightings from some of the other nearby, but
overgrown, trails and also from B-trail so don't spend
your whole time sat in a mosquito infested puddle on U-trail!
Gurney's Pitta is now classified as endangered by Birdlife
International but it remains important to refrain
from using taped or imitated calls to lure it into view
as too many people do. There are fewer and fewer independent
sightings of Gurney's Pitta these days, although some
people have seen it in the breeding season - most people
hire the assistance of Yothin Meekao to see this bird.
Take a
look at Jan Wilczur's fabulous painting of a Gurney's
Pitta.
Banded Pitta I am not aware of any sightings of Bar-bellied
Pitta in recent years and certainly not by holidaying birdwatchers,
indeed it appears that it may never have been seen in the
wild in Thailand - known only from an individual in a market
in Ubon Ratchatani. This species has a severley restricted
range in Thailand occurring only in the extreme southeast
and east of the country in forest below 400 metres. With the
destruction of almost all forest below this altitude there
are only a very few patches of habitat left close to the Cambodian
border. For those determined to find this bird in Thailand
a couple of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Ubon
Ratchatani province may be the place to look.
Despite Bar-bellied Pitta being endangered in Thailand its
international conservation status is listed as "least
concern" by the IUCN
due to its extensive range through Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Banded Pitta is one of the most beautiful species in Thailand
and is confined to forest up to 610 metres in the southern
peninsula. Never an easy species to find, most sightings of
Banded Pitta in Thailand are from Khao
Nor Chu Chi which has more to do with the number of visitors
to this location than its abundance. Those searching for this
species would do well to visit Khao
Sok National Park or Krung Ching Waterfall where very
reliable stakeouts for Banded Pitta exists and other quality
areas of forest in the south such as Hala-Bala,
Sri Phang Nga and
Thalebun have
also provided some lucky birdwatchers with a view of this
pitta.
This species has a soft call which consists of a falling "pouw"
followed by a whirring "kirrr" and it is said that
Gurney's Pitta responds to the playback of Banded Pitta's
call. For this reason birdwatchers at Khao Nor Chu Chi should
avoid the use of this species call.
The status of Banded Pitta is as an uncommon resident and
internationally it is classified as "Least concern"
by the IUCN.
Blue-winged Pitta is the easiest of Thailand's pitta species
to see although most visiting birders will not see it as this
species is a wet season visitor to Thailand and most birders
visit in the dry season. Blue-winged Pitta mainly spends the
dry season in Malaysia and Indonesia although small numbers
are resident in the south of Thailand. This bird is a common
wet season breeder and can be found in all sorts of places
during migration, even turning up in parks and gardens in
Bangkok, and is one of the few birds able to make use of plantations
as a breeding habitat. Although most birders will think of
pittas as ground-dwelling birds this is one that will call
from high in the canopy as well as from low perches and the
ground, making it much easier to spot than many other species
as it flits around in the tree tops.
By early April Blue-winged Pittas begin to appear in all manner
of wooded habitats in the far south of Thailand and by mid
April they are reaching the central region of the country
in good numbers. Although birders may encounter this species
anywhere at the right time of the year, by far the easiest
place to see a Blue-winged Pitta is in the garden of Baan
Maka Nature Lodge where it can frequently be seen from
the breakfast table. Any of the lowland area with trees near
Kaeng Krachan or within
the park itself are good places to find this species between
mid April and late July. I have also seen this species in
good numbers at Thalebun National Park, Khao
Nor Chu Chi, Khao Soi Dao, Chulachomklao Military Academy
at Nakorn Nayok, Khao Sok National Park HQ the list is endless,
this is a common bird at the right time of year.
The international conservation status of Blue-winged Pitta
reflects its abundance in Thailand as it is listed as "least
concern" with a range that covers most of Southeast Asia,
stretching into the far south of China.
Although restricted to mangroves on the west coast of the
southern peninsula, Mangrove Pitta is probably one of the
easiest pittas to find in Thailand. Its habit of sitting high
up in mangrove trees and calling makes it reasonably easy
to spot if you can get into the right habitat. The fairly
open nature of mangrove forests make spotting this bird, when
it is calling from a root or branch, much easier than spotting
many other pitta species. When the tide is out Mangrove Pitta
can be quite active on the forest floor and it is also relatively
easy to spot then too.
One of the best places to see Mangrove Pitta is at Ao
Phang Nga National Park headquarters and many birders
see this species in Krabi
on a boat trip although spotting it from a moving boat can
be quite a challenge. Anywhere that one can get into mangroves
along the western coast is likely to result in a successful
search; other places I have seen Mangrove Pitta include Satun
Mangroves and Ngao Mangrove Research centre in Ranong
province.
Internationally Mangrove Pitta is listed as "near threatened"
as, although its range stretches from Bangladesh to Indonesia,
its mangrove habitat continues to be destroyed in all of the
countries that it occurs in.
Fairy Pitta
was first recorded in Thailand at Phuttamoton
Park near Bangkok when one individual stayed from 11th to
17th April 2009 and was widely observed and photographed.
Since then this species has been discovered to be an annual
but scarce passage migrant in Eastern Thailand, regularly being
recorded at the ringing station at Ko Mun Nai in Rayong province
and other surrounding islands. A few others have turned up on
the mainland so if the weather conditions are right in April
it could be worth a closer look at any apparent Blue-winged
Pittas that appear in parks and gardens.
On 1st May 2018 I photographed a Fairy Pitta at Sri
Nakorn Kuen Khan Park in Samut Prakan province which at
the time was only the second record of the species west of the
Chao Praya River.
Internationally Fairy Pitta is listed by the IUCN
as "vulnerable" as, its habitat is subject to deforestation
in its breeding range and its population is thought to be only
a few thousand individuals.
Hooded
Pitta is a wet season migrant to most of Thailand although
it is present throughout the year in the peninsula. It
occurs far further north than the distribution maps in
either Robson's
or Lekagul &
Round's field guides but is not often seen by visiting
birdwatchers. I have seen this species in the temple gully
at Doi Chiang
Dao in early May and it has been seen breeding
as far north as Chiang
Saen. As with many other pittas, Hooded Pitta
has been photographed a number of times at nests at Kaeng
Krachan, where it can be fairly easy to find
just after it arrives in late April and May, and also
at Khao
Yai National Park and any site in the south
could provide a sighting of this species. Hooded Pitta
seems to be found more or less annually at Phuttamonton
Park just outside Bangkok in the early wet
season.
Hooded Pitta calls in a similar manner to many other pittas
with a "fluty raew-raew" similar to that of
Blue-winged Pitta.
In Thailand Hooded Pitta is an uncommon to locally common
bird and its international status is listed as "least
concern" due to its large range from India and Nepal
in the west to Japan in the east and as far south as Papua
New Guinea.
In the wet season Hooded Pitta can turn up anywhere and
its habit of calling from within trees makes it relatively
easy to see for a Pitta from mid April to July/August.
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