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takes the visitors only a few miles of travel or perhaps only a short walk in
town or country, to be convinced that Sri Lanka is a paradise for the bird
watcher. There are more than 400 species found here, indigenous varieties as
well as migrants.
Among
the birds inhabiting the more urban and populated area is the stockily built
crow, inevitably the first bird to great new arrivals with its loud raucous
cawing. The little house sparrow in found in most homes, nesting among the roof
tiles or in little post kept especially for this purpose by residents who
consider it luckily. The chocolate colored mynah, an intelligent and aggressive
bird, and the black and white magpie robin, a beautiful songster, also seems to
prefer the Calmar, or town and village to the quite of the forest.
Birds
that are equally at home amidst humans or in the lonely jungles are the Kael,
coucal or crow pheasant, broad- billed roller, black- headed & golden
orioles, barbet, many types of parrots, parakeets and lorikeets and ( if one
has a large pond) the kingfisher, red-watt led, lap wing and pond heron. The
vast majority of birds, and also the prettiest, prefer the wooded regions. Most
of them are widely distributed, spreading from the lowlands to the foothills
and on to the mountains.
Beautiful
peacock and the flashy jungle fowl, short- flighted primary birds, are both
confined to the low country & foothills. A few birds found in this region
are the haunting whistler, the elusive yellow- green Ceylon are, the
wedge-tailed drongo, the paddy bird, and that classic song bird, the orange and
black long tailed shama. Among the birds of prey are the brahiminy kite, the
serpent eagle and the majestic white- bellied sea eagle.
Some
varieties are confined only to the hills. These include the pretty little bush
chat, the dusky- blue flycatcher & azure flycatcher. The mountain hawk
eagle Sri Lanka’s finest bird of prey, is also confined to the hills.
The
best time to watch birds in the island is between the months of September and
April, when thousands upon thousands of migrants arrive. A large number of
migrants are water birds. Among them are the flamingo, whimbrel godwit, plovers
& sandpipers of many varieties, duck, teal and some herons. Land birds
include the chestnut headed bee-eater the beautiful paradise flycatcher the
pitta, the eastern peregrine & the shabin falcon
