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Pitta (genus)
''Pitta'' is a genus of birds in the Pittidae, or pitta family (biology), family. They are secretive, brightly coloured birds that forage on the forest floor. They are long-legged and short-tailed with rounded wings. They all have green on their upperparts with blue wing-patches. Many have dark heads. Nest construction, incubation and rearing of nestlings is performed by both parents. Incubation is completed in some 17 days, and the nestlings are altricial and nidicolous. Some species are migratory. The antpittas, a Neotropical bird family of some 50 species, resemble the pittas in their hopping gait, furtive behaviour, long legs and short tails. Taxonomy The genus ''Pitta'' was erected by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816. In 1855 the English ornithologist George Robert Gray designated the type species as ''Corvus triostegus'' Anders Sparrman, Sparrman. This is a Synonym (taxonomy)#Zoology, junior synonym of ''Corvus brachyura'' Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noisy Pitta
The noisy pitta (''Pitta versicolor'') is a species of bird in the family Pittidae. The noisy pitta is found in eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. It eats earthworms, insects and snails. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. Taxonomy Some authorities believe that the noisy pitta is Conspecificity, conspecific with the elegant pitta (''Pitta elegans'') of Indonesia, and/or with the rainbow pitta (''Pitta iris'') from the Northern Territory, but it is usually regarded as forming a superspecies with these two species and with the black-faced pitta (''Pitta anerythra'') of the Solomon Islands. Not all authorities agree that all these species are related; Erritzoe and Erritzoe (1998) dispute the inclusion of the rainbow pitta in this superspecies. There are two subspecies with a demarcation line around Cairns. ''Pitta versicolor simillima'' occurs in northern Queensland and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's population. As commonly conceptualised, the modern State (polity), states of South Asia include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, with Afghanistan also often included, which may otherwise be classified as part of Central Asia. South Asia borders East Asia to the northeast, Central Asia to the northwest, West Asia to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. Apart from Southeast Asia, Littoral South Asia, Maritime South Asia is the only subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. The British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of Atolls of Maldives, 26 atolls of the Maldives in South Asia lie entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian subcontinent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pitta Moluccensis - Kaeng Krachan
Pittas are a family, Pittidae, of passerine birds found in Asia, Australasia and Africa. There are 44 species of pittas, all similar in general appearance and habits. The pittas are Old World suboscines, and their closest relatives among other birds are in the genera '' Smithornis '' and '' Calyptomena''. Initially placed in a single genus, as of 2009 they have been split into three genera: ''Pitta'', ''Erythropitta'' and ''Hydrornis''. Pittas are medium-sized by passerine standards, at in length, and stocky, with strong, longish legs and long feet. They have very short tails and stout, slightly decurved bills. Many have brightly coloured plumage. Most pitta species are tropical; a few species can be found in temperate climates. They are mostly found in forests, but some live in scrub and mangroves. They are highly terrestrial and mostly solitary, and usually forage on wet forest floors in areas with good ground cover. They eat earthworms, snails, insects and similar inverteb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Pitta (Pitta Brachyura) Photograph By Shantanu Kuveskar
The Indian pitta (''Pitta brachyura'') is a passerine bird native to the Indian subcontinent. It inhabits scrub jungle, deciduous and dense evergreen forest. It breeds in the forests of the Himalayas, hills of central and western India, and migrates to other parts of the peninsula in winter. Although very colourful, it is usually shy and hidden in the undergrowth where it picks insects on the forest floor. It has a distinctive two note whistling call which is heard at dawn and dusk. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List as the population is considered large. Taxonomy The Indian pitta was first known in England after an illustration by an Indian artist was sent by Edward Bulkley to James Petiver and given the name of "Ponnunky pitta". This illustration was included by William Derham at the end of John Ray's posthumous ''Synopsis methodica avium'' which was published in 1713. The bird was again described and illustrated by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 and George Ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green-breasted Pitta
The green-breasted pitta (''Pitta reichenowi'') is a species of bird in the family Pittidae. It is one of only two Pitta species in Africa, and is found in deep forest of the tropics. Description The plumage is very similar to that of the African pitta, but the breast is green and the throat is bordered by a black line. Immatures have duller, darker plumage, and a brownish olive breast. Range It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Gabon, and Uganda. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. In Uganda however, it occurs at altitudes between . Gallery File:Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien (1916) (18173983286), Pitta reichenowi.jpg, Specimen from Beni-Mawambi, northeastern DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Pitta
The African pitta (''Pitta angolensis'') is an Afrotropical bird of the family Pittidae. It is a locally common to uncommon species, resident and migratory in the west, and an intra-African migrant between equatorial and southeastern Africa. They are elusive and hard to observe despite their brightly coloured plumage, and their loud, explosive calls are infrequently heard. The plump, somewhat thrush-like birds forage on leaf litter under the canopy of riparian or coastal forest and thickets, or in climax miombo forest. They spend much time during mornings and at dusk scratching in leaf litter or around termitaria, or may stand motionless for long periods. Following rains breeding birds call and display from the mid-canopy. Taxonomy The African pitta was described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 and given the binomial name ''Pitta angolensis''. Vieillot had introduced the genus ''Pitta'' in another book published in the same year. Three subspecies are r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrornis
''Hydrornis'' is a genus of pitta in the family Pittidae. The genus contains thirteen species, found in South-east Asia. The genus was formerly merged with the genus ''Pitta (genus), Pitta'', but a 2006 study split the family into three genera. Taxonomy The pittas were at one time all usually placed in the genus ''Pitta (genus), Pitta'', the only genus in the family Pittidae, but when a 2006 molecular phylogenetic study found that the pittas formed three separate groups, the genus was split and some species were moved into two resurrected genera, ''Erythropitta'' and ''Hydrornis''. The genus ''Hydrornis'' had been introduced by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1843 with the blue-naped pitta (''Hydrornis nipalensis'') as the type species. The name ''Hydrornis'' combines the Ancient Greek words "water" and "bird". The pittas in ''Hydrornis'' have sexually dimorphic plumage, a feature that is absent for all other pittas. Also for those species that have been studied, the juve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erythropitta
file:Black-crowned (or Black-and-crimson) Pitta (15016153385)-video.webm, 250px, Black-crowned pitta (''E. ussheri'') uttering whistles from a perch in Danum Valley Conservation Area, Danum Valley, Sabah ''Erythropitta'' is a genus of pitta. The members of the genus are found mostly in South-east Asia, with one species, the Papuan pitta, ranging into northeast Australia. The genus was formerly merged with the large genus Pitta (genus), ''Pitta'', but a 2006 study split the family into three genera. Taxonomy The pittas were at one time all usually placed in the genus ''Pitta'', the only genus in the family Pittidae, but when a 2006 molecular phylogenetic study found that the pittas formed three separate groups, the genus was split and some species were moved into two resurrected genera, ''Erythropitta'' and ''Hydrornis''. The genus ''Erythropitta'' had been introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The type species was subsequently designated as the Papua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lumpers And Splitters
Lumpers and splitters are opposing factions in any academic discipline that has to place individual examples into rigorously defined categories. The lumper–splitter problem occurs when there is the desire to create classifications and assign examples to them, for example, schools of literature, biological taxa, and so on. A "lumper" is a person who assigns examples broadly, judging that differences are not as important as signature similarities. A "splitter" makes precise definitions, and creates new categories to classify samples that differ in key ways. Origin of the terms The earliest known use of these terms was thought to be Charles Darwin, in a letter to Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1857: "It is good to have hair-splitters & lumpers". But according to research done by the deputy director at NCSE, Glenn Branch, the credit is due to naturalist Edward Newman who wrote in 1845, "The time has arrived for discarding imaginary species, and the duty of doing this is as imperative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the list of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country in the world and the largest in Oceania. Australia is the world's flattest and driest inhabited continent. It is a megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and Climate of Australia, climates including deserts of Australia, deserts in the Outback, interior and forests of Australia, tropical rainforests along the Eastern states of Australia, coast. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last glacial period. By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke 250 distinct l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, to the northeast of Australia. It is directly adjacent to Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Bougainville, a part of Papua New Guinea to the west, Australia to the southwest, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the southeast, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, and Tuvalu to the east, and Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia to the north. It has a total area of 28,896 square kilometres (11,157 sq mi), and a population of 734,887 according to the official estimates for mid-2023. Its capital and largest city, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the wider area of the Solomon Islands (archipelago), Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the Autonomous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
