“Climate change and disturbance in the park are affecting the pitta in a bad way, photographers are the main culprits with numerous photographers and videographers setting up hides and playing Gurney’s Pitta calls all day long. It seems they only care about getting the perfect photo, not the bird’s welfare! Most (not all) of the recent photos and Youtube videos have been obtained this way. We saw one of these guys in a hide at another park trying to get Blue Pitta photos, playing the call for hours!”
So playing the call for hours does work? If the bird doesn’t respond for that long, is it really responding, or just happened to turn up?
And why would someone be so desperate to get a photo? Are Gurney’s Pitta photos valuable?
Peter Shute
