Pitta sordida Statius Müller, 1776

Adult of nominate race has entire head, including chin and throat, black, upperparts dark green,  uppertail-coverts and large patch on wing-coverts rurquoise-blue; flight-feathers black, secondaries edged green, variable white patch on primaries; tail black, tipped bluegreen; breast and flanks blue-green, occasionally stronger blue, large black central belly patch, lower belly and undertail-coverts red; iris dark brown; bill black; feet pale brown to pinkish with silver-violet tinge to grey-blue. Female is sometimes slightly duller. Dusky stripes found on both green and blue upperparts and green underparts of 40% of 439 adults examined (both sexes, all races). Juvenile is duller than adult, red-brown forehead, dull greenish above, conspicuous white wing-covert band, white throat, buffy-orange breast becoming buff below, orange tip and base of bill, greyish-pink feet. Races differ mainly in general darkness of plumage, crown colour and amount of white in wing: palawanensisi is very like nominate but a shade darker, juvenile darker brown below; cucullata is large, long-winged, has forehead to nape redbrown, plumage rather pale in general, less black on belly; abbotti resembles last but darker, more olive above, bluer below, less white in wing, smaller blue rump and wing patches; bangkana has variable amount of dark brown on crown; mulleri has entirely black head, black on belly, longer legs; forsteni is larger than previous, with longer wings and contour feathers, green tail, no wite in wing; novaeguineae is darker, dark green above, little of no blue on rump, green tail, golden yellow-green breast, blue-green sides, black belly patch, dark blue lower flanks, only little white in wings; goodfellowi is slightly smaller and darker than last; rosenbergii resembles last but more blue on rump, tail black, much darker below, breast washed dark blue without glittering breastband, more extensive dark ultramarineblue on flanks, red lower breast to vent, no black on belly; mefoorana differs from previous in having glossy silverblue upper breast, black belly patch.

Wide range of habitats occupied: all types of forest, especially primary riverine forest, secondary forest with heavy understorey or scrub, wet or dry forest, also peatswamp-forest, dense bamboo jungle,  overgrown rubber or coffee plantations, various other commercial plantations (e.g. coconut, nutmeg, Albizia), orchards and old gardens, forest clearings with mustard or rice cultivations, forest patches on broken grassland, even mangroves and sago swamps. Occasionally in unusually open habitats on migration. To c. 2000 m in India; mostly in lowlands in SE Asia, but to 915 m on migration; to 500 m in Sumatra, 650 m in Sulawesi and 1000 m on the Philippines; found at up to c. 500 m in New Guinea, locally to 1200 m.

印度至中国西南部、东南亚、菲律宾、苏拉威西岛、大巽他群岛及新几内亚。

VOICE: Call somewhat variable geographically: in much of range double-noted fluty whistle,  “whew-whew” or similar, in Sundays followed by shorter “whi” or “fi”, repeated c. 3-second intervals
often for several minutes, but in Borneo more as “quck-quck” repeated 4 – 35 times; on Nicobars (abbotti) sharp monotone whistle of three or, rarely, four notes, similar to yelp pf small puppy; in Phlippines (sordida) “waup waup” c. 1 second long, but in Palawan (palawanensis) described as more fluty and disyllabic “hweew-hweew”; in New Guinea (novaeguineae) loud “wu'wí-wu'wí” with first note falling, second rising, or “kuhwihkuwee” with higher second note; much coarser-sounding call on Biak (rosenbergii); alarm a squeaky “skyew”, in New Guinea “kiaw” sometimes followed by 1 – 2 low short rasps.