Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds.

I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

And believe it or not, it is Random Bird Thursday.

Random Bird Thursday podcast episodes are relatively short and sweet. In each of them, I spotlight a bird

species that I probably won't feature in a full-length episode. And you know, there are over 11,000

bird species in the world. So Random Bird Thursday gives us an opportunity to celebrate one of those species that we might

otherwise overlook. So, which species are we talking about today? The only way to find out is to

push the Random Bird Selector button. So here we go. Okay, awesome. We have, you wait for it, wait for it.

We have the green-breasted pitta. Pitta Rikanoi.

Pitta is spelled P-I-T-A, that's the genus, but also it's the green-breasted pitta, and then

Rikanoi is R-E-I-C-H-E-N-O-W-I.

The green-breasted pitta is an elusive and colorful species from Africa, and I'm excited to talk

about it, so let's get into it.

Now, I will preface this by saying that there's not a ton of information about this species,

so get ready, this is going to truly be a short and sweet random bird Thursday episode. The green-breasted pitta is a small to medium-sized bird. It's about

6.5 to 7.5 inches long from beak to tail, and there's not much of a tail, it's pretty short,

and I should say that that is 17 to 19 centimeters.

Some might describe this bird as dumpy. A dumpy using that as an adjective, always kind of sad,

sounds like an insult, but it is, I think if it's like an egg-shaped bird, it's got a short tail,

an upright posture, kind of a large head,

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