Green-breasted Pitta - BirdForum Opus

Photo by MarcellC
Kibale Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2010

Pitta reichenowi

Identification

17 - 19cm.

• Black head with broad golden-buff supercilium
• Deep green upperparts
• Sky-blue rump and tail-coverts
• Black tail
• Black wing-coverts with violet wash and tipped sky-blue, lesser coverts with much broader blue tips
• Blackish flight-feathers with paler tips, white patch on primaries
• White throat, small black patch on lower throat
• Dull green breast with golden-yellow gloss
• Red belly and undertail-coverts
• Black bill
• Pinkish to greyish-white feet

Sexes similar. Juveniles are much duller and browner than adults.

Similar species

African Pitta has a buff breast and less deep green upperparts.

Distribution

Cameroon to northern Gabon, south-western Central African Republic, Zaire and south-western Uganda.
Rarely seen.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Habitat

Old secondary forest with dense undergrowth, also in primary forest and in old plantations.
Occurs from 1100 to 1400m in Uganda.

Behaviour

Diet

Feeds on caterpillars, beetles, beetle larvae, termites, maggots, millipedes, small centipedes, other insects and snails.

Breeding

The domed nest is made of tiwegs, dead creeper stems and dead leaves. It's placed 1.5 to 2.5 m above the ground in a tree or fallen trunk. Lays 2-3 eggs.

Movements

Probably a sedentary species.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Dickinson, EC, ed. 2003. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed., with updates to October 2008 (Corrigenda 8). Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691117010
3. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2010. IOC World Bird Names (version 2.7). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
4. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and D Christie, eds. 2003. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 8: Broadbills to Tapaculos. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334504
5. BF Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Green-breasted Pitta. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 16 March 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Green-breasted_Pitta

External Links

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