Hi all
This little bird flew into one of our windows this morning - we live in inner city Brisbane. He or she was incredibly colourful- full recovery after sitting for a while dazed, then flew away. Any ideas on what it is?
Geoff
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Nice find! It would be a Noisy Pitta. Would love to see one one day
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
wow, not your average id request
Thank you very much Ryu and Zosterops for your replies! Based on them I have checked the Internet and the description certainly matches exactly, although this little bird seemed to be a but chubbier/more compact than some of the photographs - perhaps a juvenile? Zosterops, why not average? Are these a bit unusual or actually very common? (I am not a bird expert at all....) . In terms of habitat, we have the Mt Coot-tha state forest just one block behind us and I would describe this more as a dry sclerophyll forest, which matches the description. Thank you again. Geoff
I'm interested to learn if you have any natural bush land near your house that would provide good habitat for Noisy Pittas, Geoff.
nice bird, believe they're not exactly rare within most of their range, still pretty exotic to most of us. not the commonest bird in the id forum.
Thanks for the extra comments. This is our council's description of the bushland that commences about 500metres away from where we live, probably about 8km as the crow flies from the Brisbane CBD:
Mt Coot-tha Forest is located a 15 minute drive west of Brisbane's CBD. Mt Coot-tha is a Brisbane icon forming a backdrop for the city and is cherished by the community for its many and varied values. It is Brisbane's largest natural area, with more than 1600 hectares of open eucalypt forest and rainforest gullies and creek lines. Mt Coot-tha Forest adjoins the south-eastern section of D'Aguilar National Park. These two areas of up to 40,000 hectares of forest feature spectacular views, seasonal creeks and waterfalls.
we walk regularly in the park and it is mostly dry forest, but along the creeks there are pockets of rainforest. I note that this pitta seems to be a ground dweller, and for it to be near our house means then that it has crossed several roads and braved populations of cats, scrub turkeys, peacocks (we have a resident feral population exceeding 40 roaming our connected but unfenced backyards) to get to our place.
many ground-dwelling birds are capable of rapid long-distance flight, they only seldom do so.
Wow what a find! They are normally very secretive birds and often found in rainforests. We get them at My Glorious but very hard to get a photo of as they are normally in the dark. I also love their "Walk to Work call"
Thanks so much for that information & description, Geoff.
It's great to read that Mt Coot-tha Forest forms a backdrop for the city rather than vice versa. May it ever be thus.
Since the peabirds are probably filling an ecological niche that belongs to native birds like the Noisy Pitta are there any plans to eradicate the feral Peabirds in order to conserve the natives?
a great find for a Mt Coo-tha backyard; although usually on the ground I have also seen them high in trees at about 8m
Peter
Navvy,
Noisy Pitta's are altitudinal migrants and leave the mountain rainfrests in winter and head to the warmer lower elevations and coastal littoral rainforests.
your bird looks like an adult and could have been heading for the reserve near your place for winter. They have a very distincitve whistle, described as "walk to work"