The Gurney's Pitta - Pitta gurneyi, - one of the most beautiful birds in the world, has a blue crown and black-and-yellow underparts.
The rest of the head is black, and it has warm brown upperparts. The
female has a brown crown and buffy-whitish underparts. They feed on slugs and worms. It is named after the English ornithologist John Henry Gurney.
Gurney's Pitta is critically endangered. It was initially thought to be extinct
for some time after 1952, but was rediscovered in 1986. Its rarity has
been caused by the clearance of natural forest in the Thai
peninsular.
Its population was estimated at a mere nine pairs in 1997, then believed one of the rarest bird species on earth.
The bird’s future still hangs in the balance, as destruction of lowland
forest has reduced the Thailand population by around 90% since 1986.
Maliwan Sopha, Director of BirdLife Partner Bird Conservation Society
of Thailand (BCST), said: “The quarter-century reprieve for this bird
has been squandered because successive Thai governments have allowed
rubber and oil-palm plantations to expand at the expense of remaining
forest. This has destroyed most Gurney’s Pitta habitat, causing the
population to crash from an estimated 50 pairs throughout southern
Thailand to as few as five pairs today, at a single site.”
While Thailand has an enviable record in establishing protected
areas, these are all in hilly and mountainous areas. This is bad news
for the large proportion of Thailand’s wildlife confined to lowland
forests.
The Royal Forest Department responded to the rediscovery by setting
up a wildlife sanctuary centred on the nearby mountain, Khao Nor Chuchi,
but neglected to include an adequate area of lowland forest. 75% of the
pittas were left unprotected, in Bang Khram National Reserve Forest.
Since then, rubber and oil-palm growers have gradually eaten away the
remaining forest. Many also hunt wildlife for food and the pet trade.
Khao Nor Chuchi forest, an Important Bird Area, arguably supports the
richest lowland forest bird life of any site in Thailand. The
continuing decline in Gurney’s Pitta has happened in spite of valiant
conservation efforts by BCST in partnership with the Department of
National Parks, the Royal Forest Department, the RSPB (BirdLife in the
UK) and local community bodies, with the support of the UK’s Darwin
Initiative and the Oriental Bird Club.
DNP officials have tracked the continued loss of pittas and their
habitat, but have been powerless to intervene. “We find bird nets set
both inside and outside the sanctuary”, said one anonymous official.
“Hunting, collection of forest products and illegal logging are rampant.
When we survey for Gurney’s Pittas, the rubber and oil-palm growers
monitor our movements. They then cut down the spiny palms in which the
pitta nests, reasoning that if they kill off the pittas they will more
easily be able to clear the remaining forest.”
Despite the uphill struggle facing conservationists, there is still
hope. Replanting and regeneration of forests has helped stem forest
clearance, and some local villagers practice sustainable management of
their plantations, with regenerated forest areas for wildlife. However,
this could all be in vain if the Government doesn’t seriously tackle the
many land tenure issues in the area, by delineating the boundaries of
the Wildlife Sanctuary and Reserve Forest, and strictly enforcing the
laws relating to encroachment.