Bismarck pitta
The Bismarck pitta or New Ireland pitta is a species of pitta. It was formerly considered conspecific with the red-bellied pitta. It is endemic to the Bismarck Archipelago in Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Taxonomy
The Bismarck pitta was formally described in 1878 by the Australian zoologist Edward Pierson Ramsay from a specimen that had been collected on the island of New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago. He placed it in the genus Pitta and coined the binomial name Pitta novaehibernicae. The Bismarck pitta is now placed in the genus Erythropitta that was introduced 1854 in by Charles Lucien Bonaparte.Four subspecies are recognised:E. n. novaehibernicae – New Ireland E. n. extima – New Hanover Island E. n. splendida – Tambar E. n. gazellae – New Britain and satellites from Tolokiwa to Duke of York