Nicobar hooded pitta
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Pittidae
Genus: Pitta
Species:
P. abbotti
Binomial name
Pitta abbotti
Richmond, 1902

The Nicobar hooded pitta (Pitta abbotti) is a species of passerine bird in the family Pittidae that is endemic to the Nicobar Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean.

It is a green bird with a black head and chestnut crown. It forages on the ground for insects and their larvae, and also eats berries. It breeds between February and August, the pair being strongly territorial and building their nest on the ground. Incubation and care of the fledglings is done by both parents. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the hooded pitta, now renamed to the western hooded pitta.

Taxonomy

The Nicobar hooded pitta was formally described in 1902 by the American ornithologist Charles Wallace Richmond from a specimen collected by the naturalist William Louis Abbott on Great Nicobar Island in the eastern Indian Ocean. Richmond coined the binomial name Pitta abbotti where the specific epithet was chosen to honour the collector.[1][2] The Nicobar hooded pitta was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the hooded pitta (Pitta sordida) (now the western hooded pitta). It is considered as a separate species based on the significant genetic and morphological differences.[3][4][5] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Richmond, Charles Wallace (1902). "Birds collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott and Mr. C. B. Kloss in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 25 (1288): 287-314 [298].
  2. ↑ Traylor, Melvin A. Jr, ed. (1979). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 8. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 321.
  3. ↑ Ericson, P.G.P.; Qu, Y.; Rasmussen, P.C.; Blom, M.P.K.; Rheindt, F.E.; Irestedt, M. (2019). "Genomic differentiation tracks earth-historic isolation in an Indo-Australasian archipelagic pitta (Pittidae; Aves) complex". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 19 (1): 151. doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1481-5.
  4. ↑ Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Anderton, John C. (2012). Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Vol. 2: Attributes and Status (2nd ed.). Washington D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Lynx Edicions. pp. 294–295. ISBN 978-84-96553-87-3.
  5. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (December 2023). "NZ wrens, broadbills & pittas". IOC World Bird List Version 14.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
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