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The sighting report I put together about the African Pitta Pitta angolensis longipennis at my house in 2006.  The subsequent article I wrote for Africa Birds & Birding was based on this report.

Extract
This document details the sighting of an African (Angolan) Pitta  - Pitta angolensis longipennis on 19 May 2006 in the town of Musanze (Ruhengeri), Northern Province, Rwanda.  Various video clips, digital stills, and 35mm slide pictures were taken during the duration of the sighting.  Details of sightings subsequent to the first date of sighting are also detailed here.

19 May 2006, 07:50 – 18:30 (sunset)
Weather:  Sunny to partly cloudy becoming overcast in the late afternoon.  Temperatures ranging from warm in the day to cool by sunset.
Altitude:  approx. 1,850m a.s.l.
Photographic Equipment:
1.    Sony DV Cam DCR-HC42E PAL
a.    Used for video footage and digital stills
2.    Canon AE-1 (35mm SLR) with Canon 80-220mm lens
3.    Canon EOS 300 (35mm SLR) with Canon 28-90mm lens

The bird was first spotted and identified by Andrew Rwigema (manager for Elegant Africa Ltd, Rwanda) at the company house in the Rukoro sector, Muhoza Village, Musanze.  The “Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa” (2002) by Stevenson and Fanshaw was used for the initial identification and supplemented by the “Sasol Birds of Southern Africa” (2002) by Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton.

The bird was busy foraging for food eventually determined to be a wide variety of insects and worms.  At around 09:00, Marcell Claassen started making video recordings and capturing photographs of the bird from various angles for record purposes.  The initial sighting distance varied from 10-15meters.
The Pitta remained at the above location for the whole day and was last seen when the sun set and was not seen flying away.  During the course of the day, the bird was also pointed out to Mr Justin Rurangirwa, Chief Park Warden at Parc National des Volcans.

The behaviour was consistent with that described in both the above field guides and included periods of hiding in and/or under vegetation the garden.  In the garden there is also a large hole filled with vegetation and well shaded in which the bird also spent long periods of time. 

The foraging for food seemed to take place 15-20 minutes at a time when the bird would return to cover under thick vegetation or inside the mentioned hole.  During the foraging forays, the bird was seen hawking flying insects from the ground and eating earthworms from soft wet soil.  When foraging the bird remained close to thick vegetation and would go into thick cover whenever Pied Crows and/or Black Kites flew overhead.  It would only venture into exposed areas away from cover vegetation for a few minutes at a time only.

It was also interesting to note that the bird seemed to be at fairly at ease with human activity around it. Getting within 2 meters of it just seemed to make the bird a little cautious at first but it would then proceed feeding and/or looking for food.

This sighting was also reported on the Yahoo! Groups forum “AfricanBirding” from which the following responses were had;

•    "Herbert Byaruhanga"
Fri, 19 May 2006 16:25:50 +0000
Thanks for the news about the pitta. I was in Rwanda in Feb to train bird guides. The bird guides in Rwanda are just starting to know birding. Hope you find a researcher who has done some work in Rwanda. I however suggest you ask ORTPN to send guides there and carry out some inventory. There could be more exciting birds around I guess.
Herbert   
www.birduganda.com

•    "JOHNNIE KAMUGISHA"
Fri, 19 May 2006 03:49:55 -0700 (PDT)

African (Angolan) Pitta - Ruhengeri, Rwanda

Dear Marcell,
Where exactly in Ruhenjeri do you live?
I am glad you managed to film and getting digital stills of it.
It has been quite long since we last recorded it in Uganda.
About its status in Rwanda, it should be seen there because it should be on of its route as it migrates.
I will get back to with more info about this.
Otherwise Thank you so much.
Look after yourself.
Johnnie.


•    "Richard Fleming"
Friday, May 19, 2006 3:20 PM
[AfricanBirding] Digest Number 1277
Re: Marcell Claassen African Pitta in Ruhungeri

Marcell re your request for info on African Pitta

In Rwanda: on May 10, 2003 I had an African Pitta in a small patch of degraded forest, mostly eucalyptus, about 60km south west of Kigali. There was clearly not sufficient habitat to sustain the bird as a resident and I am quite certain this was a migrating individual that had paused for rest in the closest thing it could find to a forest. Also Saul, a guide at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Southwest Uganda, nearer you in Ruhungeri, reported to me in March 2005 that he had also seen on one occasion (the only time he had seen the pitta at Bwindi) an individual pitta OUTSIDE of the forest in patchwork plantation / eucalyptus, also at about the same time of the year. Early to mid-May would seem to be a time when African Pitta is moving in numbers across Rwanda (no idea from where to where....)
best
Richard Fleming

•    “Malcolm Wilson”

On the subject of African Pitta;

I came across a bird which had flown into the Uganda Wildlife Authority office windows (did it know something!) in Kabale, SW Uganda in May.
I kept the bird for 2 days but it died from severe body wounds, suggesting a Marabou or Pied Crow had found the exhausted bird first.

The race 'longipennis' is an intra African migrant, breeding in the Miombo belt from December to April then spends the austral winter in
equatorial forests, Britton 1980.

Malcolm Wilson
Mpumalanga
South Africa


Digital still photograph – 19 May 2006, 12:32

20 May 2006, 11:00 – 18:30 (sunset)

Weather:  Sunny to partly cloudy.  Temperatures: warm in the day.
Photographic Equipment:
•    Sony DV Cam DCR-HC42E PAL
•    Used for video footage and digital stills

The bird was seen at 11:00 flying in from the back of the property to the front of the garden where it had first been spotted.  It was also photographed foraging for food near a hedge in the rear of the property.



Digital still photograph – 20 May 2006, 11:59

21 May 2006, 09:30 – 13:00

Weather: Sunny and warm

The bird was spotted in the back of the property alongside the hedge and some thick foliage next to a large tree.  Toward midday, a Pied Crow was seen in what seemed to be an attack on the Pitta.  The latter managed to avoid the Pied Crow but a half an hour later was not seen again on the property.