October 26-November 12, 2024 with Megan Edwards Crewe & 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 you have a pretty special place!
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. 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. Sri Lanka Junglefowl patrolled the paths, keeping an eye on us in case we dropped any crumbs. A Lesser Yellownape investigated branches. Alexandrine Parakeets showed their rosy shoulder patches as they foraged in a treetop across the river. A Chestnut-backed Owlet lurked low in some trackside bushes 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.
We spent the next two full days exploring one relatively small part of the vast Sinharaja National Park.
Lunch eaten, we loaded up a couple of safari jeeps and headed to Udawalawe National Park, a few miles down the road.
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 herons, spoonbills, ducks, gulls, and other waterbirds as they headed out to feed for the day. And what a morning it was!
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 headed to Victoria Park, a botanical garden smack in the middle of downtown Nuwara Eliya. There, as the afternoon drew in, we found a Pied Thrush
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, then we all headed downhill towards Kandy, stopping at a tea plantation for a tour of the tea-making process on our way.
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 (<i>Lepus nigricollis</i>)
LAYARD'S PALM SQUIRREL (<i>Funambulus layardi</i>)
INDIAN PALM SQUIRREL (<i>Funambulus palmarum</i>)
DUSKY PALM SQUIRREL (<i>Funambulus sublineatus</i>)
SRI LANKAN GIANT SQUIRREL (<i>Ratufa macroura</i>)
ROOF RAT (<i>Rattus rattus</i>)
INDIAN FLYING FOX (<i>Pteropus medius</i>)
LEAST PIPISTRELLE (<i>Pipistrellus tenuis</i>)
GREAT WOOLLY HORSESHOE BAT (<i>Rhinolophus luctus</i>)
SCHNEIDER'S LEAF-NOSED BAT (<i>Hipposideros speoris</i>)
SMOOTH-COATED OTTER (<i>Lutra perspicillata</i>)
GOLDEN JACKAL (<i>Canis aureus</i>)
JUNGLE CAT (<i>Felis chaus</i>)
INDIAN GRAY MONGOOSE (<i>Urva edwardsii</i>)
INDIAN BROWN MONGOOSE (<i>Urva fusca</i>)
RUDDY MONGOOSE (<i>Urva smithii</i>)
STRIPE-NECKED MONGOOSE (<i>Urva vitticolla</i>)
WATER BUFFALO (<i>Bubalus bubalis</i>)
CHITAL or SPOTTED DEER (<i>Axis axis</i>)
SAMBAR (<i>Rusa unicolor</i>)
EURASIAN WILD PIG (<i>Sus scrofa</i>)
<b>Reptiles and amphibians:</b>
STRIPE-TAILED BRONZEBACK TREE SNAKE (<i>Dendrelaphis caudolineolatus</i>)
SRI LANKA WOLF SNAKE (<i>Lycodon carinatus</i>)
INDIAN RAT SNAKE (<i>Ptyas mucosa</i>)
SRI LANKA GREEN PIT VIPER (<i>Craspedocephalus trigonocephalus</i>)
COMMON GREEN FOREST LIZARD (<i>Calotes calotes</i>)
ORIENTAL GARDEN LIZARD (<i>Calotes versicolor</i>)
RHINO-HORNED LIZARD (<i>Ceratophora stoddartii</i>)
HUMP-NOSED LIZARD (<i>Lyriocephalus scutatus</i>)
SRI LANKA KANGAROO LIZARD (<i>Otocryptis wiegmanni</i>)
ROCKY DAY GECKO (<i>Cnemaspis scalpensis</i>)
COMMON HOUSE GECKO (<i>Hemidactylus frenatus</i>)
COMMON ROCK SKINK (<i>Lankascincus dorsicatenatus</i>)
WATER MONITOR (<i>Varanus salvator</i>)
BENGAL (LAND) MONITOR (<i>Varanus bengalensis</i>)
MUGGER CROCODILE (<i>Crocodylus palustris</i>)
INDIAN BLACK TURTLE (<i>Melanochelys trijuga</i>)
ASIAN HOUSE TOAD (<i>Duttaphrynus melanostictus</i>)
INDIAN FIVE-FINGERED (GREEN POND) FROG (<i>Euphlyctis hexadactylus</i>)
INDIAN BURROWING FROG (<i>Sphaerotheca breviceps</i>)
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
Good birding! -- Megan