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Borneo : Trails & tribulations (1 Viewer)

A good starting point for submitting the Fairy Pitta record would be to the Oriental Bird Club: [email protected]

It clearly fits the criteria for publication under the recent records section, From the field, in their BirdingASIA journal. Also, compiler Craig Robson will undoubtedly be able to advise on any other organisation that would formally document the record.

Cheers,
Andy.
 
A good starting point for submitting the Fairy Pitta record would be to the Oriental Bird Club: [email protected]

It clearly fits the criteria for publication under the recent records section, From the field, in their BirdingASIA journal. Also, compiler Craig Robson will undoubtedly be able to advise on any other organisation that would formally document the record.

Cheers,
Andy.

Also thanks to Rob Hutchinson at Bird Tour Asia for this:

Send to: Dave Bakewell at the Malaysian Records Committee; mnsrc.rcATgmail.com
 
I am no expert on pittas, but is it really the case that there no documented records of Fairy Pitta in Sabah? (as stated by Lambert 1996). Mann's Bornean checklist states for Sabah that there are four localities, of which one, Mawau, is based on a specimen "thought to be this species". More crucially, another locality, Lumbidan, is mentioned by Sharpe (1879) (see here http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35127#page/306/mode/1up for relevant page). Here, P. nympha is listed under one of its synonyms, P. oreas (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14501101#page/344/mode/1up), and Sharpe specifically mentions having compared a specimen sent by Low to the then BM(NH) that he compared with the type of P. oreas (from Taiwan, current BMNH 1898.11.10.380). None of this takes anything away from the significance of the current sighting, but unless the ID of these specimens has been or can be disproved, then it means there are documented records from Sabah, just not recent ones. Maybe there is something in Mees's paper in 1977 that I've missed?

Hi Guy, interesting, thanks for posting. Both Lambert and Woodcock and Erritzoe and Erritzoe's monographs agree with regard to Fairy Pitta- no mention of any confirmed records from Sabah. The Erritzoes go so far as to say (P139): "To give an impression of the former distribution of this rare species, all museum specimens known by us are listed." The subsequent list does not include any P.nympha (either as this or as the synonyms P.oreas or P. bertae) from Sabah.

The Mawau specimen would appear not to be sufficiently documented since it was only 'thought to be this species'. Is there any data on what happened to that specimen? It is presumably no longer at BMNH Tring, since the Erritzoes covered the Tring collection (along with those at the AMNH New York, RMNH in Leiden, plus Copenhagen, Aarhus, Paris, Stockholm, Basel, Haelberstadt, Berlin, and Dresden) as did Lambert and Woodcock).

Mees's 1977 paper notes of the Low specimen: 'Finally there is in the British Museum an unsexed and undated bird collected by Low, merely labelled N.W. Borneo (specimen examined)'. Since the specimen is generically labelled and undated its provenance seems unproven.

Unfortunately I don't have access to Mann's Bornean checklist- does it give detail of the other two historical localities?

I have been digging re: recent records and per Rob Hutchinson there HAS been one recent record from Sabah: Chris Kehoe saw a bird at BRL on 08 Oct, 2011.

I'll drop a line to Dave Bakewell to ask if he knows of any other records and with his permission will post if there's anything newsworthy.
 
Chris

I've just checked and there are no winter records of Fairy Pitta from Hong Kong. It is an almost annual spring (April/May) and autumn (september) passage migrant in very small numbers with a single July record from 1967.

The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society Recorder will be able to supply a complete list of records (plus those for Blue-winged Pitta) should this be helpful for the research you mention.

There is also a nice range of pix by plugging "pitta" into the search engine for the HKBWS forum: HERE. The video of the Blue -winged Pitta at Futian is especially awesome.

Cheers
Mike

PS great find Halftwo!

Hi Mike- many thanks for this. if they do occur in S China in winter they are presumably scarce or rare. Lambert's monograph Pittas, Broadbills and Asities' (P163) does however quote at least one wintering record for Hong Kong:

"Although the evidence for wintering in southern China is poor, birds have been found in Hong Kong during the winter. Sightings in Hong Kong on 22 January and 12 February, perhaps of the same bird (Chalmers Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Hong Kong HKBS 1986) can most easily be explained by an overwintering individual'.

I have just been made aware that recently (April 2012) Phil Round and subsequently other observers observed multiple Fairy Pittas migrating through the Gulf of Thailand! Clearly there is still much to learn about their movements...
 
Hi Chris

The Pitta monograph is wrong. The mistake is explained in the The Avifauna of Hong Kong (Carey et al. 2000) which notes in the text on Fairy Pitta on page 325:

"Hong Kong records of Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocops major in Chalmers (1986) were erroneously attributed to this species by Lambert and Woodcock (1996)."

Just to be thorough I also checked Chalmers (1986) which only gives July and September dates for Chinese [sic] Pitta, but does include records of Great Spotted Woodpecker - the species above the pitta in Chalmers' list - for 22 Jan and 12 Feb 1984.

Could you pass this on to whoever is doing the new work on pittas?

Cheers
Mike
 
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Hi Chris

The Pitta monograph is wrong. The mistake is explained in the The Avifauna of Hong Kong (Carey et al. 2000) which notes in the text on Fairy Pitta on page 325:

"Hong Kong records of Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocops major in Chalmers (1986) were erroneously attributed to this species by Lambert and Woodcock (1996)."

Just to be thorough I also checked Chalmers (1986) which only gives July and September dates for Chinese [sic] Pitta, but does include records of Great Spotted Woodpecker - the species above the pitta in Chalmers' list - for 22 Jan and 12 Feb 1984.

Could you pass this on to whoever is doing the new work on pittas?

Cheers
Mike

Hi Mike, many thanks for the diligent digging and subsequent corrected detail, I will pass on as requested- Chris G
 
Looking forward to your trip report !

Poring : the gates don't officially open until 07.00 but you can still just walk in (and pay on the way out), this is what we did. The large trees in amongst the pools have a lot of small bird activity in the first hour of light.

Leeches : surprised you had them at Poring, I've not seen them there before despite crawling through the undergrowth etc. Now Kinabatangan is quite another matter .... !! Interestingly the guides at Kina told us that leeches don't come out at night so night walks are good ;) Though guess the snakes are more active :eek:


They lie! I got leeched looking for a bay owl at KJC on a nightwalk.... yuk!
 
Thanks for such a great trip report H. I got back from 3 weeks in Sabah on Sunday just gone so will look to do a write up of my trip in due course. It was my first trip to Sabah, so most everything was new! We were at Kinabalu, Sepilok, KJC same as you, but elephants were nowhere to be seen!) We had 6 nights at Danum, 2 at BRL and 4 at DVFC, plus 3 night at Tabin, finishing up with a few hours at Palau Manukan. Got some great mammals and birds, dipped many of the endemics , none of the green broadbills seen at all. There are plenty of photos to go with my TR too :)

All the best,

Jo
 
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