Elegant Pitta

About the Elegant Pitta

The elegant pitta (Pitta elegans) is a species of passerine bird in the pitta family Pittidae. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it is found in the Lesser Sunda Islands and Moluccas. The elegant pitta was described and illustrated by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1836 from a specimen collected on the island of Timor. Temminck coined the binomial name Pitta elegans.

The elegant pitta has sometimes been treated as a subspecies of the Indian pitta (P. brachyura), noisy pitta (P. versicolor) or blue-winged pitta (P. moluccensis). Four subspecies are recognised: P. e. virginalis Hartert, 1896 – the small islands of Tanahjampea, Kalaotoa, and Kalao (between Sulawesi and Flores)

P. e. hutzi Meise, 1942 – island of Nusa Penida (southeast of Bali) P. e. maria Hartert, 1896 – island of Sumba (south Lesser Sundas) P. e. elegans Temminck, 1836 – island of Timor and surrounding islands Three other subspecies have been described but are now lumped in the preceding subspecies.

It is endemic to the Lesser Sunda Islands and Moluccas in Indonesia. It is reported as also being found in East Timor by some authors... Wikipedia →