October 26-November 12, 2024 with Megan Edwards Crewe & local guide Udi Hettige
Sri Lanka has long been known as "the pearl of the Indian Ocean", and for good reason: its tropical climate, abundant nature, fascinating culture, spicy cuisine, famous teas, and friendly people combine to make it a real jewel among destinations. And for birders, there are additional attractions in the form of nearly three dozen island endemics and nearly as many regional specialties shared only with nearby India. Add a sprinkling of range-restricted winter visitors from the Himalayas and some interesting mammals and herps, and you have a pretty special place! We had some prodigious rain to contend with (and a bad cold and cough that felled many in the group) but finished the tour with eyes laid on every single one of the island's endemics -- including the sometimes heard but rarely seen Sri Lanka Bay-Owl.
We started our adventure on the grounds of our Colombo hotel, where fruiting trees near the parking lot attracted handsome Green Imperial Pigeons, while Brown-headed Barbets chortled from treetops and White-bellied Drongoes hunted from telephone wires. As we rambled along the nearby drainage canal, some weedy fields and the coconut palm grove that stretches along the driveway, we got to grips with some of the more common Sri Lankan species, including a showy male Loten's Sunbird that we watched singing in the scopes, confiding gangs of Yellow-billed Babblers bouncing across the lawns, and a pair of White-bellied Munias nibbling grass seeds. Two White-bellied Sea-Eagles soared overhead, with one being chased by a very bold crow. As dusk settled and the mosquitoes began to whine, we tracked down a calling Brown Boobook and then an Indian Scops-Owl in quick succession for a great finishing touch to our first afternoon. The following morning saw us out again, with a noisy pair of Red-backed Flamebacks (one of Sri Lanka's newest endemics), a perched Shikra, a territorial Stork-billed Kingfisher and a trio of White-browed Bulbuls among the highlights. After breakfast, we loaded up and worked our way to the island's interior, headed for Kitulgala and the Makandawa Forest Reserve. Though our destination wasn't far distance-wise (less than 60 miles away), the narrow, winding roads and ubiquitous traffic mean for slow going, so it took us most of the morning to get there. But we made a few stops along the way to help break up the journey.
The first was a roadside stop near a flooded rice field, where a host of herons and egrets patrolled the raised banks between the paddies, Red-wattled Lapwings called to each other and a handful of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters festooned the roadside wires. Further along, a side road near one of the country's many Buddha statues gave us the chance to stretch our legs. A hunting pair of Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrikes, a couple of showy Common Tailorbirds and our first Black-capped Bulbul danced through some scruffy trees while a few Crested Treeswifts and a quartet of Oriental Honey-buzzards (in a bewildering variety of plumages) circled overhead. A gang of Sri Lanka Swallows swirled over a nearby field, showing their distinctively rusty underparts. Then it was on to our hotel, and lunch in their open-air restaurant overlooking the Kelani River.
We spent the next day and a half exploring Kitulgala's lush surroundings, including part of the extensive Makandawa Forest Reserve just across the river and the leafy subdivision along the road near the town's police station. Stork-billed Kingfishers perched above the river, while Little Cormorants stood spread-eagled on the rocks below. A Sri Lanka Gray Hornbill surveyed its territory from a leafy palm between our hotel and the river. Sri Lanka Junglefowl patrolled the paths, keeping an eye on us in case we dropped any crumbs. Alexandrine Parakeets showed their rosy shoulder patches as they foraged in a treetop across the river and a couple of Layard's Parakeets sat quietly in trees just outside our hotel. A Chestnut-backed Owlet lurked low in some trackside bushes in the park and we spotted another pair high in taller trees the next day. Gangs of Orange-billed Babblers swarmed around the modest houses near the park entrance and a male Indian Paradise-Flycatcher looked like a comet as it flashed across a clearing to sit in a tree, trailing its long white tail behind it. We had our first encounters with many of Sri Lanka's forest specialties: Sri Lanka Green-Pigeon, Spot-winged Thrush, Tickell's Blue Flycatcher, Large-billed Leaf Warbler, White-throated Flowerpecker and more. Crimson-fronted and Yellow-crowned barbets sang from bare treetops and a Lesser Yellownape carefully scrutinized a series of branches. On a final morning's outing around the hotel, we added a pair of Slaty-legged Crakes, a perched Shikra, and a couple of Sri Lanka Hanging-Parrots that paraded up and down some branches. Then it was off to our next hotel, on the edge of Sinharaja National Park.
Sinharaja National Park is vast, and though we only explored one small corner of it during our two days, there was plenty to see. We started with a bang, with a species rarely seen by most tour groups -- the Sri Lanka Bay-Owl. Udi got word of one shortly before our arrival, so we detoured to the spot and slithered down a slippery, leech-infested slope behind someone's house to get stunning, up-close views of it snoozing on a day roost. Later that afternoon, in the scruffy front garden of another of Udi's contacts, we got outstanding views of the endemic Green-billed Coucal, which had eluded most of us in Kitulgala. Early on one of our mornings here, a feeding station below the park gate brought in a furtive pair of Sri Lanka Spurfowl and a handsome Asian Emerald Dove, which fed quietly for five minutes or so before being chased off by more aggressive Sri Lanka Junglefowl. While we enjoyed a celebratory picnic breakfast, Udi's scouts located a Sri Lanka Frogmouth and a Serendib Scops-Owl within a few hundred yards of each other, and led us to the secret spot for outstanding views of both. We returned to the same station the following morning when Udi got word that several White-faced Starlings -- a vulnerable species that is declining due to habitat degradation -- were visiting; fortunately, the trio were still in attendance when we arrived. Road construction meant we had a bit of a long slog up to the entrance gate each morning from where the work zone was, but there were things to look at along the way. A small lodge partway along had feeders that brought in Yellow-browed and Square-tailed bulbuls and a showy gang of Sri Lanka Blue Magpies.
Our afternoons in the park were a bit more challenging, no thanks to the relentless rain that hammered down starting around lunchtime each day and continuing for hours. It turned the trails into running streams and quagmires, and some of the group opted to retreat to the hotel rather than face the downpours. Those who persisted were treated to a big mixed flock that boiled through the treetops as the rain lessened one afternoon, with at least five Red-faced Malkohas in tow. A second wet afternoon whittled the "stayers" down significantly, but the brave souls were rewarded with a very confiding Sri Lanka Thrush working mere feet off the trail, a pair of Malabar Trogons, and more than a dozen Ashy-headed Laughing-Thrushes with another big mixed flock.
We made one last attempt to get a look at Ashy-headed Laughingthrush for those who'd missed yesterday's birds, checking the area around the park's visitor's center. While we dipped on the laughingthrushes, we did get great views of a foraging troop of Purple-faced Leaf-Monkeys. Then we followed the narrow, winding roads down to Udawalawe, stopping here and there along the way for Indian Robin, Brown Shrike and a scattering of raptors. We arrived at our next hotel in time to check in before lunch. Once we'd eaten, we loaded up a couple of safari jeeps and headed to Udawalawe National Park, a few miles down the road. A scattering of shorebirds, our first Jerdon's Bushlark and a trio of Brown-headed Gulls were sprinkled along the shore of the vast Udawalawe Reservoir, but the real treats were further into the park. A couple of Indian Rollers perched atop poles as we passed through the park gate, and Plum-headed Parakeets checked out potential nestholes in a dead tree. A Malabar Pied Hornbill bounced across on a grassy patch. Yellow-wattled Lapwings and Paddyfield Pipits trotted around in the short grass, looking for tasty morsels. Asian Elephants moved ponderously through the scrubby growth and one sprayed muddy water all over itself in an effort to cool off. A pair of chattering White-tailed Ioras landed in a tree right beside our vehicles. Tawny-bellied and Yellow-eyed babblers twitched through scruffy bushes and a Gray-breasted Prinia belted out its song from the very top of a little tree. A Yellow-crowned Woodpecker sat (cooperatively) in an open dead tree, and our first Coppersmith Barbet sang from a tree over one of the scattered puddles, sounding (appropriately) like someone hammering on an anvil. A Blue-faced Malkoha perched -- uncharacteristically -- right in the open, and a pair of showy Barred Buttonquail allowed nice comparison between the drabber male and more colorful female. It was a wonderfully birdy afternoon, and we exited right at dusk well satisfied.
The following morning, we were again up well before sunrise, heading to the island's southern coast and Bundala National Park. Our goal was to reach the wetlands near first light, the better to witness the liftoff of birds as they headed out to feed for the day. And what a morning it was! We spent the first hour and a half of daylight at the Senasuma wetlands just outside of the main park entrance, combing through a multitude of herons, terns and shorebirds. Dozens of Gray-headed Swamphens trundled through the greenery, mostly tail-less Pheasant-tailed Jacanas tiptoed across floating vegetation, a Black Bittern stood atop a pile of sticks and our first Gray-headed Fish-Eagle sat regally atop a dead tree. After a hasty picnic breakfast at the visitor's center, we decanted into two safari jeeps and headed out into the park. Rough dirt tracks wound through low, dry scrub to a series of reed-fringed ponds and salt pans. Shortly after departing, those in the second vehicle spotted a Black-capped Kingfisher perched atop a dead snag; unfortunately, it departed before the first van could back up enough to see it. Further along, we found a multiple pairs of Cotton Pygmy-Geese in a vegetation-choked pond, a Jungle Prinia and Yellow-eyed Babblers chortled from treetops and two Pied Cuckoos sat in a spindly bush. At the salt pans, several big roosts contained hundreds of birds -- Little, Gull-billed, Common, Sandwich, White-winged, Great Crested, Lesser Crested and Caspian terns -- allowing some great direct comparisons. Shorebirds, including Tibetan Sand-Plover; Kentish and Little Ringed plovers; Marsh, Common, Curlew and Broad-billed sandpipers; Common Redshank; Common Greenshank; Little Stint and Black-winged Stilt pattered right beside the vehicles, while a handful of Small Pratincoles bathed in a nearby puddle. With many new species in the bag, we headed to our next hotel for lunch and a break. Once the heat had dissipated a bit, later in the day, we headed to nearby the Debarawewa tank and some surrounding areas. We found a day-roosting Brown Fish-Owl in a streamside palm, and two wide-eyed Jungle Owlets in the yard of a friend of Udi's. That garden also contained a pair of White-naped Woodpeckers that posed photogenically on palm trunks. The nearby tank held dozens of Black-headed Ibis and a solitary Little Grebe, and we picked up a pair of Barn Owls on our way back to the hotel.
We were up early again the next day. As the light slowly strengthened, we headed towards the enormous Yala National Park on Sri Lanka's southeastern flank, arriving just before daybreak to join the scrum of vehicles waiting at the entrance. It's always a bit chaotic at first, with dozens of vehicles roaring past and the stink of diesel everywhere, but eventually the general tourists head further into the park, leaving the slower birders to meander their way along. Our best sighting here was probably the pair of Black-necked Storks we found: a male perched atop its massive stick nest and a female (showing nicely her purple cap and glossy green head and neck) striding along a nearby shoreline. Other good finds included our only Oriental Skylark, a Gray-breasted Cuckoo (for those in Udi's jeep), and a Baya Weaver (for those in Megan's). We had smaller numbers of many of the same shorebirds we'd seen at Bundala, plus a couple of new ones: a trio of Greater Sand-plovers poised along one shoreline and a single Eurasian Curlew probing with its enormous bill a bit further along. Sadly, we dipped on our hoped-for Leopard, but we did find a sizable herd of Wild Boar, several grazing Sambar and a handful of Black-naped Hares -- including one being chased around by a displaying Indian Peacock. After lunch and a break back at our hotel, we headed out to revisit some of the areas around Debarawewa, since so many had missed yesterday's afternoon's outing. We finished the day with a long, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to track down a couple of Brown Wood-Owls that Udi's scouts had found. Though we heard them (over and over and over), we could never pull them into view.
From Tissa, we wound our way up to the island's central highlands, stopping for a walk on the fringes of the Lunugamverhera National Park before we left the lowlands. Along the leafy lane, we marveled at the extraordinary song of a Sri Lankan Shama, which posed obligingly on a nearby open branch. A couple of Brown-capped Babblers shouted challenges back and forth to each other across the track, and one of the singers eventually proved as showy as the shama, as it too sat on an open branch. Green Warblers flicked through the treetops, a Coppersmith Barbet flaunted its colors, Udi and a few of the gang had brief views of a Spotted Flycatcher and a handful of Small Minivets dazzled as we worked our way back to the bus. Half an hour further up the road, a circling kettle of birds -- including a trio of Asian Woolly-necked Storks, two White-bellied Sea-Eagles and a Black Eagle -- had us scurrying out of the bus again. Then it was a long, slow slog up the mountain (in the bus, of course) until we reached the town of Ella, where we stopped for a tea break at what must have been the slowest tea house in all of Sri Lanka! After an interminable wait, our drinks finally arrived; we guzzled them down and continued on to our hotel for a very late lunch. We went out again in the late afternoon, heading to the edge of town for our first encounters with some of the country's highland species. A Dull-blue Flycatcher and a Sri Lanka Bush Warbler twitched through dense streamside vegetation. Two Yellow-eared Bulbuls investigated hillside trees. And as we worked our way down to the bus, a Common Hawk-Cuckoo raked past, looking for all the world like an Accipiter species.
We had a very early start the following morning, up and out well before dawn. We arrived at our destination shortly after daybreak and were rewarded by being first in line at the entrance when the Horton Plains National Park opened its gates at 6 a.m. After an initial stream of vehicles, we had the road largely to ourselves, with plenty to keep us occupied. Squadrons of Sri Lanka White-eyes swarmed through trees along the road. Asian Tits carefully inspected twigs and leaf buds. Dull-blue Flycatchers whistled tunefully. Velvet-fronted Nuthatches hitched their way along branches. Indian Blackbirds skulked through the underbrush, occasionally breaking into song or popping briefly into view. Pied Bushchats posed on spiky bamboo stalks and park signs. A handful of Hill Swallows circled over the visitor's center while a nearby Oriental Honey-Buzzard did a dramatic flight display, clapping its wings audibly and repeatedly over its back. Two Sri Lanka Scimitar-Babblers poked and prodded their curved, yellow beaks into mossy clumps. Some impressively fuzzy Purple-faced Leaf-Monkeys (the high altitude subspecies monticola) scrambled through trees on the other side of a little pond. And after considerable effort -- and a fair bit of shuffling back and forth up and down the road -- we FINALLY laid eyes on a couple of Sri Lanka Whistling-Thrushes, with the brown female proving particularly cooperative. After lunch and a bit of a break back at our hotel, we visited a quiet side road near the edge of the city in search of Sri Lanka Woodpigeon. Though they continued to elude us, we did have nice encounters with a pair of hunting Gray-headed Canary-Flycatchers and a quartet of Orange Minivets. A couple of Velvet-fronted Nuthatches crawled up tree trunks and, near the edge of a smelly dump, we found a wintering Kashmir Flycatcher -- a bird with a very small world range. We finished the day at Victoria Park, a botanical garden smack dab in the middle of downtown Nuwara Eliya. There, as the afternoon drew in, we found a Pied Thrush sitting quietly in a tree just over our heads.
The following morning, a few of us made a return pilgrimage to the small community of Pattipola in a last attempt to find Sri Lanka Woodpigeon. And we succeeded in spades! At the edge of town, we found nine of these big endemic pigeons alternately trundling about between burgeoning rows of vegetables in a small garden outside a home or winging across the road to a small ditch for a drink or a preen in a nearby tree. Quarry in the bag, we headed back to the lodge to join the others for breakfast, with a bonus Black-winged Kite spotted perched up on a dead snag on our way. Once we'd eaten, we headed down the mountain towards Kandy, stopping at a tea plantation for a tour of the tea-making process -- and some tea and cake -- on our way. It was raining hard again by the time we reached our hotel on the leafy outskirts of the city, which washed out our planned afternoon explorations. However, half of the group braved the weather for a visit to the Temple of the Buddha's Tooth. This World Heritage site holds a relic said to be one of the four teeth to survive Buddha's cremation and is Sri Lanka's most imporant Buddhist shrine. Fortunately, by the following morning, the rain clouds had cleared away (though some light fog persisted early in the day) and we were able to explore part of the extensive grounds of our hotel and along some nearby tracks. Our top sighting was probably the two Golden-fronted Leafbirds we found on our way down the entrance drive. Among our other 30+ species were a quartet of Brown-capped Babblers working through trackside bushes, a trio of Lesser Yellownapes whirling through the trees overhead, a cooperative male Indian Blue Robin sitting right in the open on a big branch and a solitary Chestnut-headed Bee-eater making repeated sallies after prey. From there, we headed to Sigiriya, stopping en route at a spice garden for a tour and some spice purchases, and -- for a lucky few -- an Orange-headed Thrush that flicked through the the leaf litter in a nearby patch of forest.
We finished the tour in the dry forest around the famous Lion Rock in Sigiriya. The volcanic plug was long the site of an impressively large fortress and palace, and the moat at its base still holds water more than 1500 years later! We scoured that moat and the surrounding forest, finding our first Jerdon's Leafbird, a couple of Fork-tailed Drongo-Cuckoos, a catch-up Orange-headed Thrush for those who'd missed the first one, and a Crimson-backed Flameback that spent long minutes drumming on a dead snag. And who will soon forget the magnficent sight of that huge Spotted Eagle-Owl gazing down from a perch high in a tree at the foot of Lion Rock?! Our efforts continued after dark, and we were rewarded with a couple of Indian Nightjars and at least eight Jerdon's Nightjars, including one which churred from a treetop in the beam of Udi's spotlight. Then we "closed the loop", heading west again back to Colombo, where we'd started.
Thanks so much for joining me for the adventure! Thanks too for your patience in waiting for this very overdue trip list. I hope that reading it brings back some good memories!
OTHER SPECIES OF INTEREST:
Mammals:
ASIAN ELEPHANT (Elephas maximus)
TOQUE MACAQUE (Macaca sinica)
TUFTED GRAY LANGUR (Semnopithecus priam)
PURPLE-FACED LANGUR (Semnopithecus vetulus)
INDIAN HARE (Lepus nigricollis)
LAYARD'S PALM SQUIRREL (Funambulus layardi)
INDIAN PALM SQUIRREL (Funambulus palmarum)
DUSKY PALM SQUIRREL (Funambulus sublineatus)
SRI LANKAN GIANT SQUIRREL (Ratufa macroura)
ROOF RAT (Rattus rattus)
INDIAN FLYING FOX (Pteropus medius)
LEAST PIPISTRELLE (Pipistrellus tenuis)
GREAT WOOLLY HORSESHOE BAT (Rhinolophus luctus)
SCHNEIDER'S LEAF-NOSED BAT (Hipposideros speoris)
SMOOTH-COATED OTTER (Lutra perspicillata)
GOLDEN JACKAL (Canis aureus)
JUNGLE CAT (Felis chaus)
INDIAN GRAY MONGOOSE (Urva edwardsii)
INDIAN BROWN MONGOOSE (Urva fusca)
RUDDY MONGOOSE (Urva smithii)
STRIPE-NECKED MONGOOSE (Urva vitticolla)
WATER BUFFALO (Bubalus bubalis)
CHITAL or SPOTTED DEER (Axis axis)
SAMBAR (Rusa unicolor)
EURASIAN WILD PIG (Sus scrofa)
Reptiles and amphibians:
STRIPE-TAILED BRONZEBACK TREE SNAKE (Dendrelaphis caudolineolatus)
SRI LANKA WOLF SNAKE (Lycodon carinatus)
INDIAN RAT SNAKE (Ptyas mucosa)
SRI LANKA GREEN PIT VIPER (Craspedocephalus trigonocephalus)
COMMON GREEN FOREST LIZARD (Calotes calotes)
ORIENTAL GARDEN LIZARD (Calotes versicolor)
RHINO-HORNED LIZARD (Ceratophora stoddartii)
HUMP-NOSED LIZARD (Lyriocephalus scutatus)
SRI LANKA KANGAROO LIZARD (Otocryptis wiegmanni)
ROCKY DAY GECKO (Cnemaspis scalpensis)
COMMON HOUSE GECKO (Hemidactylus frenatus)
COMMON ROCK SKINK (Lankascincus dorsicatenatus)
WATER MONITOR (Varanus salvator)
BENGAL (LAND) MONITOR (Varanus bengalensis)
MUGGER CROCODILE (Crocodylus palustris)
INDIAN BLACK TURTLE (Melanochelys trijuga)
ASIAN HOUSE TOAD (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)
INDIAN FIVE-FINGERED (GREEN POND) FROG (Euphlyctis hexadactylus)
INDIAN BURROWING FROG (Sphaerotheca breviceps)
BRONZED FROG (Indosylvirana temporalis)
SIDE-STRIPED SHRUB FROG (Pseudophilautus pleurotaenia)
COMMON HOURGLASS TREEFROG (Polypedates cruciger)
SPOTTED (INDIAN) TREEFROG (Polypedates maculatus)
MONTANE HOURGLASS TREEFROG (Taruga eques)
GIANT BLUE EARTHWORM (Megascolex coeruleus)
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/292702
You can see my iNaturalist report of non-avian taxa at this link: https://uk.inaturalist.org/projects/sri-lanka-2024
Good birding! -- Megan