Indian Pitta

A colorful stubby-tailed bird, also known as “Navrang,” translated as “nine colors.” Colors are most striking when the bird is in flight. This bird has long, strong legs and a stout bill, a buffy crown with a black stripe in the middle, a black eye-stripe, and and buffy underparts with bright red on the vent. Upperparts are green, with a blue shoulder patch. It is usually seen foraging on forest floors with thick undergrowth, catching insects in leaf litter. This bird is vocal, giving its characteristic two-noted whistle call at dusk and dawn.

Non-breeding visitors in Sri Lanka occur in thick forest and secondary jungle, and on initial arrival also often found in gardens or coffee plantations and even town parks. Present up to 1700 m in India, but only up to 1200 m during breeding; at 450–750 m in Pakistan; up to 1800 m, but mostly lower, in Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, the Indian Pitta primarily feeds on a diet of small invertebrates like insects, earthworms, small snails, millipedes, and insect larvae, which it forages for on the forest floor by digging through leaf litter and hopping around to pick them up; occasionally, they may also scavenge small food scraps left on the ground near human settlements.