Indian Pitta

The Indian pitta, or navrang, is a small, stubby-tailed ground bird with long, strong legs and a stout bill. It has a buff crown stripe bordered by black stripes, a thick black eye stripe and a white throat and neck. The upperparts are green with a blue tail, and the underparts buff with bright red on the lower belly and vent. Although very colourful, it is usually shy and hidden in the undergrowth, hopping about the forest floor and picking insects from the leaf litter (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is more often heard than seen. Its loud two-note whistle, wheeet-tieu, is given once or twice at dawn and dusk, often answered by neighbours, which has earned it the name six o'clock bird. It lives in scrub jungle and deciduous and dense evergreen forest. It is monotypic. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Indian subcontinent and a migrant within India with a large range, finds its current trend stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).