Pitta sordida (Statius Muller, 1776)

Bishop, K. David, 2023, The avifauna of Biak Island, Papua, Indonesia with comments on status, conservation, natural history and taxonomy, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 143 (1), pp. 3-62 : 44

HOODED PITTA Pitta sordida #

Local name Man Wosre (Sansundi).

Range P. s. rosenbergii Biak, Supiori ; P. s. mefoorana Numfor.

Taxonomy P. s. rosenbergii was treated as a species by del Hoyo & Collar (2016) and Gregory (2017), whereas Beehler & Pratt (2016) maintained it as an endemic subspecies. Del Hoyo & Collar (2016) and Gregory (2017) treated P. s. mefoorana as a subspecies of Eastern Hooded Pitta P. novaeguineae with Gregory (2017) noting that P. s. mefoorana is ‘fairly distinctive’. More recently, Ericson et al. (2019) compared population genomics of 29 individuals of P. sordida from the entire distribution and reconstructed their relationships, electing to split Hooded Pitta into three species: Sulawesi, Western and Eastern. Among Eastern birds, rosenbergii is sister to all other members of the New Guinea clade, but Sulawesi birds are unquestionably the most differentiated (F. E. Rheindt in litt. 2021).

Status Biak endemic subspecies. Widespread and sometimes common (e.g., in southern lowlands of Supiori) in tall secondary, selectively logged and primary lowland forest to at least c. 305 m ( KDB; Supiori). Obtained by most collectors and seen and heard moderately commonly by most visitors. Regularly perches to call from a horizontal branch 1‒2 m above ground. One specimen had consumed the larvae of aquatic insects ( Mayr & Meyer de Schauensee 1939). This taxon is categorised by BirdLife International as Vulnerable.