The Pittas of Borneo

The bird

Borneo's pitta family

Eight of Borneo's nine pittas live in the forests of Sabah, moving through the darkest ravines where they flick dead leaves aside to hunt. You can track them by ear along the trails of Danum Valley or wait in the commercial hides of the highlands. Photographing these terrestrial birds demands early mornings, extreme camera settings, and a guide who knows their territorial whistles.

Borneo is the global centre for the family. The birds spent millions of years separated by mountains and glaciation to evolve into 9 distinct species across the island. The family was split into 3 genera in 2009. The Erythropitta clade contains small birds with short tails and bright red bellies. The Hydrornis clade features highly coloured males and brown females. The Pitta clade includes the widespread green birds with blue wing patches and it contains all the migratory species that cross Asia to winter in the tropics.

The accepted standard is the IOC World Bird List Version 15.1 from February 2026. The island has 4 strictly endemic species. Sabah holds 8 of the 9 Bornean species with trails, guides and hides to help you find them.

The eight Sabah birds

• Black-crowned Pitta (Erythropitta ussheri). Endemic to Sabah and northern Sarawak. Least Concern (2021).
• Blue-banded Pitta (Erythropitta arquata). Endemic to Borneo. Least Concern.
• Bornean Banded-Pitta (Hydrornis schwaneri). Endemic to Borneo. Least Concern.
• Blue-headed Pitta (Hydrornis baudii). Endemic to Borneo. Vulnerable.
• Giant Pitta (Hydrornis caeruleus). Resident in Borneo. Near Threatened.
• Western Hooded Pitta (Pitta sordida mulleri). Resident in Borneo. Least Concern.
• Blue-winged Pitta (Pitta moluccensis). Migrant from October to April. Least Concern.
• Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha). Rare migrant. Vulnerable.

The Blue-banded Pitta inhabits submontane slopes choked with bamboo and fallen timber. It is a realistic target at the Telupid community hides. The male has an orange-red head and a vivid blue necklace across the breast. The Bornean Banded-Pitta was split from the widespread Banded Pitta. The endemic male shows bright yellow underparts with fine black bands and a dark blue belly patch. The Blue-headed Pitta is a Vulnerable endemic. The male has a bright blue crown over a reddish-brown back and deep blue underparts.

The Giant Pitta reaches 29 centimetres long and weighs over 200 grams. The male shows cerulean blue upperparts above a thin black breast line. The Western Hooded Pitta belongs to the western clade and shows an entirely black hood. The Blue-winged Pitta is a winter visitor that appears in coastal scrub. The Fairy Pitta is a globally Vulnerable migrant that breeds in Taiwan and Japan. Unprecedented influxes of immature birds arrived at the Rainforest Discovery Centre in recent years.

The Black-crowned Pitta

The Black-crowned Pitta is Sabah's defining ground bird. The species is resident in primary lowland dipterocarp forest and seen on most stays. Adults measure up to 15.5 centimetres long and weigh roughly 60 grams. The male has a jet-black head and upper breast above a bright crimson belly. A pale blue stripe extends sharply backward from the eye. The back is dark purple-blue and the wing holds an iridescent azure patch. The stout black bill terminates in a bright red or orange tip.

Listen for its whistle before searching for it by eye. The territorial song is a quiet ventriloquial whistle lasting 4 seconds. It rises in pitch and amplitude but wavers slightly in the middle. The birds call in short series of about 5 whistles. They use a soft grunt just before feeding their chicks and issue a sharp threat call under high stress. Fledglings produce their own unique harmonic song.

The species lives strictly below 300 metres. Above that elevation the Blue-banded Pitta replaces it entirely. It thrives in primary lowland dipterocarp forest and adapts successfully to selectively logged secondary forests and Albizia plantations. Breeding peaks from February to July. They build domed nests 24 centimetres wide on muddy banks above forest streams. The birds weave living rattan fronds into the structure to shade the roof and lay rotting wood chips at the entrance. The female broods continuously for 2 days after the eggs hatch and the male conducts most of the early feeding.

The boundary with the Garnet Pitta is rigid. The Black-crowned Pitta was long considered a subspecies of the Garnet Pitta. Modern science split them because of the black head and the different song. Genetic sequencing shows they are 99.90 percent identical in their mitochondrial DNA. The Black-crowned Pitta occupies Sabah and reaches just across the border into the Lawas River basin of northern Sarawak. South and west of that basin the Garnet Pitta replaces it entirely. The Garnet Pitta does not live in Sabah.

Chinese-speaking birders must use the correct terminology to avoid algorithmic confusion on social platforms. Its accepted Chinese name translates as “Black-headed Pitta”. Translation applications often produce the Chinese name for the Graceful Pitta of Sumatra when translating "Black-crowned Pitta". Searching for that name yields incorrect habitat and elevation data. Use the Latin binomial Erythropitta ussheri to ensure you plan for the correct lowland bird.

Sabah's lowland forests

Danum Valley Conservation Area is the stronghold for lowland trail birding. There are no baited hides inside the 438 square kilometres of protection forest. The Blue-headed Pitta is a realistic target on the trails around Borneo Rainforest Lodge. The lodge's construction and expansion period runs from 1 January 2025 to 22 January 2027. The Giant Pitta is the ultimate prize here. It is heard every dawn and seen with luck. It calls from deep cover and often ignores playback. It requires hours of silent walking along the Waterfall Trail or the Nature Trail. Every encounter is natural and demands extreme patience.

The Rainforest Discovery Centre at Sepilok provides excellent access along the 1.9-kilometre Pitta Path and the Kingfisher Trail. You can find the Black-crowned Pitta foraging in the dark ravines early in the morning. The Western Hooded Pitta is regular on the night drive. They roost on low branches where you can observe them closely. The famous 2024 photography hide was dismantled by the authorities so you must track the birds on foot. Expert guides now scan the forested boundaries of private eco-lodges near the reserve entrance where birds forage close to the chalets.

Tabin Wildlife Reserve mixes a primary core with dense secondary forest edges bordering oil palm estates. The birds thrive in the secondary growth and along the river margins. The reserve is excellent for driving safaris and targeted walking tracks where pittas exploit the invertebrate life in the degraded borders.

The Kinabatangan River basin holds pittas in its riparian forest strips. You must search the dry oxbow trails. Heavy monsoon floods silence the birds completely. When the rivers rise 3 metres the birds abandon their territorial calls and retreat to higher ground to forage silently. They become totally unresponsive to playback during wet periods.

Highland commercial photography hides

Commercial bird hides operate in the highlands for the montane species. The Bornean Banded-Pitta lives around 1,300 metres on Mount Trusmadi. There are 2 main hides in the area. The KK Lee Trusmadi Bird Hide offers comfortable seating, Wi-Fi connectivity and hot meals. The Trusmadi Bird Station run by CP Song has coffee, tea and a bathroom and targets the exact same species. Ask the team for the price that applies to your dates.

The Kampung Bestaria eco-tourism project manages a hide near Telupid. The hide suits you if you are steady on steep forest trails and makes the Blue-banded Pitta a realistic target. The local community manages the access and the transport to the trailhead.

You should verify the status of older hides before planning a trip around them. Ask the team to confirm the current arrangement at the Tawau Hills Park hide and the forestry department's access requirements and fees at Gunung Alab.

Forest trails and local guides

Visual detection is rare in the dense understorey. Local guides track the birds by memorising their distinct territorial whistles. They walk the trails before dawn and listen. When a guide hears the call they shift their attention from the mid-canopy to the leaf litter. Pittas hunt for earthworms by rhythmically tossing dead leaves aside to expose the damp soil. This leaf-flip motion is what gives them away.

The birds are highly territorial. They maintain rigid boundaries against their own species while tolerating broadbills in the same space. This behaviour allows guides to reliably stake out known territories day after day. Activity spikes in the early morning and immediately after light rain forces earthworms closer to the surface.

Mealworms and camera flashes

The commercial hides attract birds by providing live mealworms. The ethics of baiting divide the birding community. Local guides tolerate the practice because it secures local tourism income and draws birds into view. Natural trail encounters yield photographs featuring chaotic authentic leaf litter. Baited hides often use placed perches like mossy logs and vines to create clean unobstructed compositions. These setups are easily recognised by experienced birders.

The danger arises during breeding which peaks from February to July for the Black-crowned Pitta. Whole mealworms can cause severe internal damage to young nestlings. Ethical hide operators ensure all mealworms are cut into pieces and their heads removed if the birds are actively feeding young. They also enforce strict silence and forbid trail gardening to protect active nests.

The other absolute rule is the ban on artificial light. The use of flash photography is strictly prohibited in protected areas like Danum Valley and Sepilok. Sudden bursts of light cause severe distress and temporary blindness to birds accustomed to deep shade. The flashes permanently alter the behaviour of nocturnal species. Reputable operators terminate the tour immediately if a visitor uses a flash.

Low light camera gear

Shooting in the dipterocarp understorey is a supreme technical challenge. Very little sunlight penetrates the 70-metre canopy. Pittas make rapid micro-movements while flipping leaves and foraging. You need a shutter speed of at least 1/500s to freeze the bird. To achieve this in the gloom you must push your camera to extreme ISO settings. Auto ISO often selects ISO 6400 and will occasionally spike to ISO 12800.

Lens choice shapes your mobility. A heavy 600mm f/4 lens gathers enough light to keep the ISO manageable but requires a heavy tripod or a specialised ground-pod. A lighter 500mm f/5.6 lens is much easier to carry on a humid trail but costs a full stop of light. Modern noise reduction software makes the slower lenses viable for photographers who want to travel light.

You must apply negative exposure compensation. Dial in -0.7 to -1.0 EV before you even see the bird. The dark background tricks the camera into overexposing the frame. If you do not compensate you will blow out the red channel on the bird's crimson belly. Once the red channel clips the belly renders as a flat glowing mass without feather detail and you cannot recover that detail in post-processing.

Shoot from a low angle. Use a ground-pod or a beanbag on the mud to get eye-level with the bird. A fast f/4 aperture melts the cluttered foreground debris into smooth bokeh. Do not forget to scan low branches and fallen logs. Pittas climb up to 2 metres off the ground onto the buttress roots of massive dipterocarps to broadcast their territorial songs.