Graeme Chapman - natural history photographer - ornithologist

Bird calls / bird song
Noisy Pitta

Noisy Pittas have a limited range of calls - there are three of them here. Another call I have never heard is described as a soft whistle and may be the one called juvenile "por" whistle on the BOCA CD #5 recorded by David Stewart. The repeated "walk to work" is the territorial song, starts at daybreak and heard for much of the day in spring and early summer. Once they have young in the nest they quieten down a bit. The territory is already well established and more time is needed to collect food. Samples 352-03 & 04 are songs from two different birds (remarkably similar) at O'Reillys in the Macpherson Ra. southern Qld. Samples 352-05 & 06 are from the same bird near Coff's Harbour, NSW. In 352-05 note how different the song is from the Qld. birds. This is followed by two different calls, a soft "purr" given about 7 times (who by? could be the mate or an unseen young one) and then a loud "pyeew" (x4) called "keeow" in HANZAB. In my experience this is an alarm call often given if the bird finds you near its nest. 352-06 is a slightly louder version of the "purr" call, function unknown.

352-03 Noisy Pitta 090-170
352-04 Noisy Pitta 208-320
352-05 Noisy Pitta 097-150
352-06 Noisy Pitta 097-200

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