ML616267675

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Even though eBird did not flag this (to my surprise) when I submitted, records of the African Pitta are far from common around Livingstone. Indeed, the Zambia Bird App published in 2019 has no record at all for the area, the species' known range being (mainly) in the east of Zambia with the nearest regular sightings downstream from Chirundu. This being said, Yakov Sabag had several sightings around his former home just a couple of km downstream from Kadiki around the start of this decade, which caused Doug Evans, whose family has been there for decades, to remark that he had heard/seen them several times prior to this (but not reported - he is not a birder!). So, it looks like Pittas may have been around for many years, at least irregularly, but gone unreported. This particular bird had been reported (and photo-ed) by Waterberry guides on Saturday 9 March and for a couple of days thereafter (and is the one we had hoped to find at Clipper on the 13th); but it then went unreported until it popped up again this morning literally 20 metres from one of the guide's houses inside the compound, in classic Pitta habitat as far as the vegetation is concerned. Victoria and I were given permission by the GM to 'twitch' it.

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P900

ISO

900

Focal length

268 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/30 sec

Dimensions

1280 pixels x 960 pixels

Original file size

296.82 KB