Erythropitta

thumb|right|250px|Black-crowned pitta (E. ussheri) uttering whistles from a perch in Danum Valley Conservation Area|Danum Valley, Sabah Erythropitta is a genus of birds in the pitta family Pittidae. The members of the genus are found mostly in Southeast Asia, with one species, the Papuan pitta, ranging into northeast Australia. The genus was formerly merged with the large genus Pitta, but based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2006, the family Pittidae has been split into three genera.

==Taxonomy== The pittas were at one time all usually placed in the genus Pitta, the only genus in the family Pittidae, but when a 2006 molecular phylogenetic study found that the pittas formed three separate groups, the genus was split and some species were moved into two resurrected genera, Erythropitta and Hydrornis. The genus Erythropitta had been introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The type species was subsequently designated as the Papuan pitta (Erythropitta macklotii). The name Erythropitta combines the Ancient Greek word eruthros "red" with the genus name Pitta.