Sri Lanka

Day 1: The tour begins this afternoon at our hotel in Colombo, where we’ll have a short walk around the grounds before dinner in search of our first Sri Lankan birds. Night in Colombo.

Really, not a thing could improve this journey! Deepal’s knowledge and experience with the birds of Sri Lanka are beyond compare. He found all the endemics and many regional specialties, sometimes with excruciating effort, and always confirming each birder had satisfactory looks. Lodging and meals were the best each locale had to offer. Additionally, various cultural and historical moments were at least noted.Peter Derven, Mar. 2019

Day 2: After breakfast we’ll drive to Sigiriya, a 600-foot-high, wide pinnacle of rock rising out of the jungle and perhaps the most striking sight on Sri Lanka. After checking in to our hotel, we’ll have time to explore the surrounding forest for our first birds, which could include Ceylon Grey Hornbill and a selection of woodpeckers such as the striking crimson form of Black-rumped Flameback and White-naped Woodpecker. Night in Sigiriya. 

Day 3: Around the base of the imposing rock is an extensive series of ancient ruins, most of which have been swallowed by the jungle that will provide many of today’s birds. We’ll wander the extensive network of tracks and roadways in search of Oriental Scops, Brown Fish, and Forest Eagle Owls, Jerdon’s Nightjar, Blue-faced Malkoha, Drongo and Banded Bay Cuckoos, Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, Indian Pitta, Ceylon Woodshrike, Large and Black-headed Cuckooshrikes, Blue-winged Leafbird, Orange-headed Thrush, White-rumped Shama, Indian Black and Indian Blue Robins, Jungle, Ashy, and Grey-breasted Prinias, Green and Large-billed Leaf Warblers, and Brown-capped Babbler. Night in Sigiriya. 

Day 4:Leaving Sigiriya, we’ll travel to Kandy, home of traditional Sri Lankan culture. For birds we need venture no further than the secluded grounds of our accommodation, an utterly delightful small hotel on the outskirts of the town with grounds that are visited by a range of species, and we’ll spend the afternoon in this peaceful setting. Night in Kandy.

Days 5–6: We’ll continue our drive into the highlands and the town of Nuwara Eliya in the heart of Sri Lanka’s hill country and tea-growing region, and we’ll make a stop to sample some of the tea for which the island is so famous. Among the formal shrubbery of Victoria Park we should see Indian Pitta and Pied Thrush, while on the Horton Plains we’ll search for Jerdon’s Baza, Yellow-eared Bulbul, Ceylon Scimitar-babbler, Sri Lanka Bush Warbler, and Sri Lanka White-eye, among others. Over the next few days we’ll visit many sites to look for Kashmir and Dull Blue Flycatchers, but the real prize of our visit to this region will be the Arrenga, or Ceylon Whistling-thrush, one of the rarest and most magical birds on the island. Nights in Nuwara Eliya. 

Day 7: Leaving the cool hill county, we’ll drive south into the dry lowlands. We’ll reach our hotel in time for lunch and spend the afternoon visiting the Udawalawe National Park. Established to protect the forest catchment of a large reservoir, this park is home to good numbers of waterbirds and mammals. We’ll switch to open-topped jeeps and drive around the park searching for the distinctive Sri Lankan forms of Crested Hawk-eagle and Barred Buttonquail, as well as Lesser Adjutant, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Plum-headed Parakeet, Orange-breasted Green Pigeon, Sirkeer Malkoha, Jungle Prinia, Forest Wagtail, and Blyth’s Pipit. We can also expect close encounters with some of the many wild Indian Elephants that inhabit the park. Night in Udawalawe. 

Day 8: Before breakfast we’ll visit a birding site looking for Coppersmith Barbet, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Jerdon’s Leafbird, Small Minivet, Ashy-crowned Sparrowlark, Oriental Skylark, and Yellow Wagtail. Later we’ll journey east to the village of Tissa, famous for its large tank (or lake) and ancient domed dagoba (Buddhist shrine). On the way we’ll stop at a reservoir to look for a variety of waterbirds including Black and Yellow Bitterns.

This evening we’ll visit Yala National Park, where we’ll encounter drier forest and open grasslands. These habitats are still very rich in birds, and we’ll look for Lesser Adjutant, Asian Openbill, Spot-billed Pelican, Great Thick-knee, and Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark, among others. Yala is also home to many mammals, including Indian Elephant, Leopard, Sloth Bear, Wild Boar, Tufted Grey Langur, Sambar, and Spotted Deer. We’ll also venture out at dusk to search for Jerdon’s Nightjar and the more common Indian Nightjar. Night in Tissa.

Day 9: We’ll visit Bundla National Park, an extensive area of marsh and coastal lagoons, to look for Black and Yellow Bitterns, Watercock, Ruddy-breasted Crake, a variety of waders including Pacific Golden Plover and Pintail Snipe, and hordes of stunning Blue-tailed Bee-eaters. In the evening we’ll explore the ancient reservoirs (tanks) in the Tissa area to see more waterbirds, especially Watercock and any species of bittern missed during our previous birding sessions. Night in Tissa. 

Day 10: We’ll drive to our comfortable hotel in Weddagala close to the Sinharaja rainforest. After lunch at the hotel we’ll explore the hotel grounds, where we expect to find some of the island’s endemics, such as Layard’s Parakeet and Yellow-fronted Barbet, along with Black-headed Cuckooshrike, Orange and Small Minivets, Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike, and many others of interest. Night in Weddagala. 

Days 11–12: These two days are set aside for exploring Sinharaja’s rainforest in the heart of the wet zone. The park’s extensive bird list includes most of the country’s endemics, and we have a good chance of seeing the majority of them, although some are easier to find than others. The ground-dwelling Sri Lanka Spurfowl requires stealth and sharp eyes, whereas roving flocks of Ashy-headed Laughingthrushes and Orange-billed Babblers are much more obliging. Ceylon Hill-mynas call loudly and clearly from exposed positions while Ceylon Hanging-parrots shriek past.

The exquisite Ceylon Blue Magpie is a real gem, and with luck we’ll see several. We’ll also keep a sharp eye open for Red-faced Malkoha cavorting around the tangled vines and creepers. Another rare and shy inhabitant of the forest here is Green-billed Coucal, and we’ll listen carefully for the distinctive call that will betray the presence of this remarkable bird. White-faced Starling may appear high up in the trees, and multicolored butterflies, the size of saucers, will float in and out of the warm humid forest, which at times echoes to the excited calls of mixed-species bird flocks. Sinharaja will undoubtedly be a rewarding highlight of the tour. Nights in Weddagala.

Days 13–14: We’ll leave on the morning of day 13 for Kitulgala, on the banks of the River Kelani. Famous as the location for the filming of The Bridge on the River Kwai, our hotel is located right on the riverbank, and we should arrive in time for birdwatching on the grounds. The next day we’ll cross the river to spend time in the lush rainforest. Here we’ll search for the endemic Chestnut-backed Owlet as well as any other endemics and rainforest species we may have missed at Sinharaja. Nights in Kitulgala. 

Day 15: After another birding session in the morning at Kitulgala we’ll travel back to Colombo, where, depending on flight schedules, there may be time in the afternoon to visit a forest site to look for Brown Wood Owl. Night in Colombo. 

Day 16: The tour concludes this morning in Colombo.

2019 Narrative

The first meetingup ofthe whole group was at the lunchtime in the restaurant at the airport hotel on the 16^th. At lunch we agreed to do a different birding session than was the plan for the first day of previous tours. After lunch we left for a large wetland about an hour’s drive from the hotel. We expected to try for a couple of special Asian birds which are also rarities in Sri Lanka, i.e. a Pied Harrier and a Grey-headed Lapwing which were recently recorded from this wetland. Unfortunately, we dipped on the two target birds but had good observations of many wetland birds and reasonable views of a pair of Blue-faced Malkoha. We returned to the hotel in time for dinner. The following day we birdwatched around the hotel garden for an hour or so before we left for Sigiriya after a good breakfast. Here we added some good garden birds to our list such as the endemic Lesser Sri Lanka Flameback, and Brown-headed Barbet, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Black-hooded Oriole, White-browed Bulbul and Purple-rumped and Loten’s Sunbirds amongst many other species.

Our journey towards the northern dry lowlands in the morning was in a comfortable minibus - our main vehicle throughout the tour. We passed through many small towns and villages as well as a couple of larger towns. There were some good bird habitats along the way, including a few wetlands and we only made a few brief stops, by the roadside, spotting some species important for our bird list. At the comfort stop, about halfway on our journey, we had very good views of a soaring Black Eagle. We reached the hotel in Sigiriya by lunchtime and from there onwards we spent one-and-a-half days exploring bird habitats there, mainly the dry scrublands and forests. During our two-night stay we encountered many important birds including Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Indian Pitta, Sri Lanka Woodshrike, Brown-capped Babbler, Orange-headed Thrush, Indian Blue Robin, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, White-rumped Shama, Green warbler, Large-billed Leaf Warbler, Lesser whistling Ducks, Purple Heron, Purple Swamphen, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Crimson-backed Flameback, Drongo Cuckoo, Common Iora, Small Minivet, Jerdon’s Leafbird, Black-capped Bulbul, Dark-fronted Babbler and Thick-billed Flowerpecker.

On day four we left the dry zone birding behind and headed to the hill zone. The climate and vegetation changed gradually as we reached the foothills. We expected to see a different set of birds including some species unique to the highlands during our next three nights here. Our first stop was in the lower hills near Kandy, a place surrounded by a rich forest habitat. During our birding here we got some good but important species before we reached our next destination, in a cooler climate in the high hills where we spent two nights. During our highland birding we were very successful in finding all the specialities. We found, and managed to have very good views of, Brown Fish Owl, Brown, Wood Owl Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, Sri Lanka Bush Warbler, Dull Blue Flycatcher, Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, Yellow-eared Bulbul, Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler, Sri Lanka White-eye, Pied Thrush, Kashmir Flycatcher, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, Cinereous Tit and Forest Wagtail.

After three days of birding we left the high Central Mountains and descended to the dry lowlands of the south-eastern coast. Parts of our downhill journey were through extensive tea plantations, spectacular sceneries and, by a waterfall, we experienced beautiful mist-covered caps of cascading mountain ranges bordering deep valleys in the distance. Over three days in the dry lowlands we explored a few of the country’s most popular national parks and some rich wetland habitats. We explored the parks on jeep safaris. Amongst the many birds we saw, the following are some of the interesting species encountered: Painted Stork, Black-headed Ibis, Yellow Bittern, Black Bittern, Watercock, Grey-headed Fish Eagle, Black-winged Kite, Crested Hawk Eagle, Indian Peafowl, Small Pratincole, Plum-headed Parakeet, Jerdon’s Nightjar, Indian Nightjar, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Orange-breasted Green Pigeon, Grey-bellied Cuckoo, Green Bee-eater, Indian Roller, Coppersmith Barbet, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Marshall’s Iora, Jungle Prinia, Yellow-eyed Babbler, Jerdon’s Bushlark and Blyth’s Pipit.

Completing our birding in the dry lowlands with a very successful pre-breakfast bird watching session at a bird-rich scrubland we headed to the rainforest region of the country. The first location was at the lower hills in a different mountain range south of the Central Mountains and the second was at the western foothills of the main central mountains. Both in the country’s wet zone which harbours many endemic birds and other special rainforest dwellers. Though the high humidity here was sometimes uncomfortable, our five-day explorations between the two locations rewarded us with many interesting birds including all the remaining endemics on our list. The endemic Sri Lanka Spurfowl gave us some trouble since the pair had stopped coming to the regular stakeout – the backyard of a house in a forest village. Our attempts to see it at a recently found stakeout had failed too. Finally, we managed to obtain good views of a pair walking in the forest after patiently waiting and trying for this naturally extremely shy spurfowl. Following are some of the interesting species we had superb views of: Slaty-legged Crake, Red-faced Malkoha, Green-billed Coucal, Malabar Trogon, Serendib Scops Owl, Chestnut-backed Owlet, White-faced Starling, Spot-winged Thrush, Sri Lanka Hill Myna, White-throated Flowerpecker, Ashy-headed Laughing-thrushes, Orange-billed babbler, Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush and Sri Lanka Blue Magpie.

At the end of our rainforest exploration we returned to our first hotel near the airport thus concluding another successful tour of Sri Lanka. Our final group gathering was at dinner with the usual large buffet spread in the hotel restaurant. After completing the day’s bird tally the Bird of the Trip was announced. Amongst the 11 favoured species voted by the participants, the very attractive endemic Red-faced Malkoha stood at the winning place. A foursome of Serendib Scops Owl, Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Jordon’s Nightjar and Sri Lanka Blue Magpie became the runners-up.

During our two weeks we had encountered 239 species of birds including all the country’s 34 endemics and many other Indian Subcontinent endemics. Amongst these, we had 10 species of owl, frogmouth and nightjars seen very well. And of the many of the birds we found, the group had superb ‘scope views too. We also encountered 18 species of mammals and several species of reptiles including Agamid lizards, Monitor lizards and Mugger Crocodile.

-          Deepal Warakagoda

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