NEWS PITTA DOUBLE! in THAILANDS

In contrast to winter 2007/2008, when at least three bird species were added to the Thai list, the past cool season (2008/2009) brought no mega-surprises.? But recent events have more than made up for that seeming dearth, with two species of pitta likely to be added to the Thailand tally (making a remarkable 14 pittas for the country in total).?
Banphot Kittikinglert, Korn Ratanasthien??and Ratha??Rodcharoen?were looking for a Hooded Pitta at Phutthamonthol, a park on the western outskirts of Bangkok, when they found a Fairy Pitta Pitta nympha, a globally threatened species which breeds in S Japan, Korea, and which winters in eastern Borneo.?? Once photos were widely circulated on 16 April, over a hundred observers and photographers descended on the site. ?Cooperation among birders and photographers was exemplary and most succeeded in getting outstanding views and photographs of the bird in the ensuing two days.? A 10?20 degrees longitude westwards displacement of the normal migration route is necessary to bring this bird over Thai territory. Only two weeks earlier, another Bornean winterer, a Narcissus Flycatcher was found at the same site. The record is all the more remarkable because of the length of stay? a full week, from 11?17 April. (According to conventional wisdom, northbound spring birds are in a hurry to return to their breeding grounds, and establish territories, and rarely stop off for more than a couple of days.)
The other new pitta for the country list is a likely Blue-naped Pitta P. nipalensis that was found and identified by Dr. Nantawan Suanka, Warin Komson, Rujira Phongsunon and Nolapan Vudhivanich at Na Haeo, Loei Province, in the north of the country, on 1 March.? The habitat was secondary bamboo-dominated forest. Unlike the Fairy Pitta, this has yet to be documented by photographs, but the description leaves little room for doubt and acceptance by BCST Records Committee is a mere formality.?
Blue-naped Pitta ranges from the eastern Himalayas, eastwards to Burma, S China, N Laos and northern Vietnam. This species was previously predicted as of possible occurrence by Philip Round in Appendix 2 of Guide to the Birds of Thailand (1991) and is likely to be resident in Loei .