Indian Pitta: Most Colourful Bird

Indian Pitta is a small bird. It is the most colourful bird. There are nine different colours on it. Due to this fact, it is called Navranga (meaning nine coloured). It is a very shy bird and often keeps to the ground under the bushes. Most of the times, it is spotted by its calls.

Pitta comes to North India under Himalayan foothills for breeding. The bird migrates to south India or western India during winters. Initially it was named “Ponnunky Pitta“. In fact the name is derived from Telugu language in which it means a “small bird “.

Based on vivid colours, the bird has many different names like “Naorang” in Hindi, “Shumcha” in Bengali, Hariyo in Gujarati. It is also called 6 O’clock bird as it is most active at this time in the morning. In Tamil it is known as “Kaachul“, in Telugu “Polanki pitta, Ponnangi pitta“.

Our area falls in the foothills of Himalayas. Lots of these birds can be heard in the summer mornings. The bird visits our areas during the height of summers season. They nest here. I also was lucky to spot and photograph this bird.