MANGROVE PITTA BIRDS - ENVIRONMENT
News: First-ever
census finds 179 mangrove pitta birds in two coastal Odisha districts
What's in the news?
● In
a first-ever census of mangrove pitta birds carried out in two coastal
districts of Odisha, 179 such birds
were sighted.
Key takeaways:
● The
first census of mangrove pitta
(Pitta megharencha) birds was mainly focused on the mangrove patches all along
the coasts of Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur
districts of Odisha.
● The
Bhitarkanika National Park witnessed
the arrival of 1,39,959 birds of 140 species in January this year.
Mangrove Pitta Birds:
● It
is a species of passerine bird in
the Pittidae family native to Southeast Asia and South Asia.
● These
pittas are monotypic species.
● They
are colourful birds which have black head with brown crown, white throat,
greenish upper parts, buff under-parts and reddish vent area.
Habitat:
● The
mangrove pitta species is distributed in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
● Mangrove
pitta birds are a nearly threatened species found in a few pockets of eastern
India, including Odisha’s Bhitarkanika and West Bengal’s Sundarbans.
Conservation:
● IUCN
Status - Near Threatened
Go back to basics:
What is a passerine bird?
● A
passerine or passeriform is a member of the order Passeriformes, the largest
order of birds, containing more than half of all species.
● They
are also known as perching birds or,
less accurately, as songbirds.
● Passerines
are all terrestrial, found on all continents except Antarctica.