(Post-dated entry from 24th and 25th July 2009)

Like I said, a critical pitta in my year’s mission and no mistake; one of the few key pittas around which I had arranged all the other species.

Through months of planning ahead of my first trip to this part of Africa, I had remained extremely concerned about the chances of finding the species. Even up to the very moment I arrived in SW Uganda, as far as I had been able to establish the only way to find the Green-breasted Pitta was to head to Kibale NP in SW Uganda. And once there, all one could do was hire one of the armed UWA forest guides, and then tramp around the forest at Kibale for days on end hoping against hope that one would randomly bump into one, and get a brief flight view as the bird flushed. Reports from numerous people who had tried to find the species over the last few years suggested that this decidedly hit and miss method was the only way, and I knew all too well that many people had made repeated and unsuccessful attempts to see the bird. I had also been warned that if I missed the bird in July there was even less chance of connecting once the birds had started breeding. There was, in short, immense potential for the wheels to come off my lunatic mission in a hurry.

However, as I arrived at the site I happened across the wonderful (Kalema) Livingstone, the man who had helped arrange all my Ugandan logistics, with his two birding clients and a UWA forest guide. It quickly became clear that there had been a considerable number of developments in the very recent past:

1. •The bird’s display had been observed, and, crucially, the vocalisation that accompanies it had been documented for the first time.
   

2. •As a result, birds could be tracked down when they are calling in the period leading up to breeding, (usually late Aug/early Sept in SW Uganda.) Hence they typically call and display from late June until at least mid-August.
   

3. •One of the UWA Guides, ‘Gerald T’ (pronounced ‘Gerard;’ (there are two Geralds at Kibale it transpires, hence the ‘T’ is important,)) had been scouring the forest at the start of the pre-breeding season, in an attempt to locate calling birds. The bad news is this research had proved that the species is rare even at this, the key Ugandan site. The good news is that in Summer 2009 Gerald had located at least 4 calling birds...
   

4. •Gerald had been out looking for the birds on the very day I arrived with an American couple, Jim and Linda. They politely informed me that had seen at least two birds very well, displaying and latterly feeding on the forest floor!
   

I was somewhat gobsmacked, and didn’t get much sleep ahead of our first day’s search. On 25th July we walked from Kibale Forest HQ for 45 mins through the forest in the dark, and by 0630 had reached the spot marking Gerald’s success of the previous day. We immediately heard a pitta calling distantly, a truly bizarre sound. It’s easy to understand how it took so many years for people to tie the sound to the pitta; the display vocalisation is unlike any other species of pitta I have ever heard, and pretty much unlike any other species of bird altogether. We walked slowly towards the source of the sound, and by the time we reached it, two birds were calling in the darkness above us, probably a male and answering female, as one call was slightly higher pitched than the other. It was clear the birds were moving around in the canopy, and as daylight started to filter through the forest, the male (?) we had targetted continued to elude us, before it stopped calling altogether.

My heart sank, but a 2nd (presumed male) soon started to call more strongly a couple of hundred metres away. After a whispered consultation with Gerald, we switched to Plan B, and this time by happy accident the bird was in a slightly more open area where we could see more of the canopy. A movement became evident some 30m (!) above our heads, and the first glimmers of light illuminated the silhouette of a bird jumping up and down on the spot, way way up in the highest branches of a mature evergreen. It could only be one thing; a displaying Green-breasted Pitta. We could dimly make out the shape of the bird, jumping six inches into the air and landing back on the same spot, tail up, head down, wings flicked out, a posture designed to show off the iridescent blue rump, the white wing patches, and the red belly all in one go.

Phenomenal. The 27 hour, three-flight, budget journey via Dubai and Addis Ababa, and the 12 hour dusty, bumpy drive from Entebbe with an injured back was suddenly all worthwhile- on day #1 we had the bird!

Over the next hour or so the bird gradually descended, using lower and lower perches, and giving occasional views, until after an hour and a half we caught a glimpse of it flighting down to the forest floor to feed. We sneaked over and were rewarded with incredible views of a pair of birds feeding at c5m range, well aware of our presence but (in pitta terms at least) very confiding nonetheless. I managed to snatch a few photos of the mythical creature, one of which is above.

In. The. Bag.

Forgive me if I save the well-lit, frame-filling photo of this, one of Africa’s least known and most elusive birds, perched in the open on a log in beautiful early morning light for next year’s book. Absolutely, unbelievably, cosmically amazing stuff.

So then, let’s see...nine days free in Uganda to go birding. Tomorrow’s post-dated blog will cover Queen Elizabeth NP, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and Lake Mburo, and the quest for the Albertine Rift Endemics.

Isn’t life great when a plan comes together? I love everyone and everything in the universe. Except maybe Man Utd., and people who drop litter when they are stood right next to a bin.

As I write this I am back in the UK for a few days, trying to get copious amounts of red dust out of my rucksack and the stiffness out of my back. And still grinning.