Black-headed Pitta

About the Black-headed Pitta

The black-crowned pitta (Erythropitta ussheri), also known as the black-headed pitta, black-and-crimson pitta, black-and-scarlet pitta or black-crowned garnet pitta, is a brightly coloured, ground-dwelling, bird species in the pitta family Pittidae. It is endemic to the Southeast Asian island of Borneo.

The black-crowned pitta was formally described in 1877 by the English ornithologist John Gould based on specimens that had been collected near the Lawas River in northern Borneo and sent to London by the British colonial administrator Herbert Taylor Ussher. Gould used the binomial name Pitta ussheri with the specific epithet chosen to honour Ussher who had supplied the specimens. The English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe published a description later in the same year. The black-crowned pitta is now one of 13 species placed in the genus Erythropitta that was introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

The pitta was formerly considered a subspecies of the garnet pitta (Erythropitta granatina) but was split because of morphological and vocal differences as well as apparent parapatry.... Wikipedia →