Fairy Pitta

The fairy pitta is a small, colourful ground bird 16–20 cm long. It has a warm brown crown, broad buff eyebrow, black facial mask, white throat, green back, restricted blue wing-covert patch and red under-tail coverts. In flight, a small white patch shows in the otherwise dark outer wing. Compared with the blue-winged pitta, it has less saturated underparts and smaller blue and white wing markings (Hong Kong Bird Watching Society species account; Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in eastern China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan and migrates through mainland Southeast Asia; confirmed Vietnamese records include Xuân Thủy, Tam Đảo and Nam Cát Tiên. Broadleaved forest and bamboo provide breeding habitat, while wooded sites are used during passage. Earthworms dominate the food delivered to nestlings, supplemented by centipedes, caterpillars, beetles and other invertebrates. Both parents tend a clutch of three to six eggs, with incubation reported at about 15 days (BirdLife in Indochina; Lin et al. 2024; BirdLife species account).