PITTA PILGRIMAGE

Look there - on that branch, behind those green leaves!’ Crouching in thick forest, with sweat dripping, heart pounding and eyes straining, I frantically searched with my binoculars, trying to work out which branch, which green leaves - indeed, which darned tree? I was close to panicking as we had come so far, and yet I just couldn't see where our guide was pointing.

- TEXT HARRIET NIMMO

And then I heard it: ‘pirrup’ I thought I must be hallucinating as I had been listening to that call for so long on my bird app in preparation for this trip. But now it was for real, this time accompanied by a flutter of movement in the canopy above. Finally I tuned in and, lo and behold, not one but two pittas were there above us in all their gaudy brilliance! So unbelievably flamboyant and yet so utterly cryptic and elusive.

With each ‘pirrup’ one of the pair hopped up and down, flashing its bejewelled wings before landing each time just out of sight, behind a clump of leaves.

Huge relief and jubilant celebrations, bear hugs and a few tears from yours truly. Not the greatest sighting I grant you, and fiendishly difficult to photograph up in the canopy, but I had finally seen a pitta - in fact two!

Often considered the ‘holy grail’ of birding in Africa, the African Pitta is one of those birds that has gained near mythical status among birders. You rarely just randomly come across a pitta; you have to go on a quest, to be in the right place at the right time.

It had long been a dream of mine to see this magical bird, so familiar from the front cover of my African bird guide. The more I read, the more captivated I became. Author and journalist, Simon Barnes’s enchanting description had piqued my interest: “...like a badly drawn blackbird coloured in by a child with a brand-new set of felt-tip pens.”