Sein-Chiong Chiu called Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS to inform that he was caring caring for an injured Hooded Pitta (Pitta sordida cucullata).
Said Chiu, “Early this morning my neighbour passed me a dazed and stunned adult Hooded Pitta which he picked up in his garden. The bird probably flew into his window pane during migration. It was unable to fly and its head was hanging to one side when I placed it in the cage. When I came back from market 1.5 hours later it could fly around inside the cage. Will keep it overnight to allow it to rest and eat and will release it tomorrow morning. This is the third Hooded Pitta to be rescued over the years around Ipoh”.
Amar came over to Chiu’s place at lunch time with his wife to see the bird. It was alert and quite recovered. “Took some pictures though the bars (no flash used) just for documentation of plumage. Choose not to handle the bird as was distressed with approach,” added Amar.
The next day Chiu reported, “Happy to inform that after giving it a night’s rest, the release this morning was successful. The pitta flew to the golf course, will be suitable habitat for it as it will be able to find worms before continuing on it’s journey north.”
The rescue was in the Malaysian city of Ipoh in the state of Perak.
Image by Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS.
4 responses
I have only seen this subspecies once at Kinabatangan River last time 🙂
Hi Dato’,
I have a Pitta now with me. The bird starnded in our house. It is so pretty so we decided to keep it without knowing the species. We went to one bird shop in Petaling street and showed the photo. Then only we know it is Pitta and was informed to feed with worms> My question 1) Can we keep the Pitta 2) How to keep it? We have no experience except a cat as a pet.
Please assist. TQ
Dear Lina,
I am afraid that you are not allowed to keep the species as pet, it is a “Totally Protected Bird” in Malaysia where it is not allowed to be handled by anyone without a special permit that is applied from Perhilitan. Next year onwards, the new act is on going and the penalty for offending the act is even higher, so I would suggest you to release the bird when it is capable of gaining flight by itself, if it had an injured wing, you can try to send it to UPM’s veterinarian department, they should be able to take it from there.