I had the fortune to photograph an immature Noisy Pitta in amongst a
vine tangle at Mt Glorious [SEQ] today. I saw the flash of blue in
the dim light when it first flushed, so I knew I was onto a pitta.
The pitta had a pink gape, so I could tell it was an immature bird.
Overall, it was a relatively plain plumaged bird - the green on it's
back was a bit like a bronze-cuckoo. Although the black primaries
were prominent, I couldn't make out any blue on the wing coverts.
While the white wingspot was present, and there was pale rose
colouring on the undertail coverts, the most interesting feature was
the bird's neck plumage. Normally Noisy Pittas have a black throat,
but this bird had a distinctly white throat and a white necklace.
This made the bird look a bit like a Blue-winged Pitta.
The moral of this observation is that if you think you have found a
Blue-winged Pitta, make sure you can rule out the possibility that it
is an immature Noisy Pitta.
If you are interested, you can see a pair of images of the bird on the
Australasian Bird Image Database [http://www.aviceda.org/abid/newimages.php
]
Regards, Laurie.
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