Our Emirates flight was on time arriving into Colombo and getting through the airport was simple enough where after eventually collecting our bags and changing up the money, we met our guide (Chaminda Dilruk). It was only 9am but waiting outside was almost too much for us with the rediculously high humidity making us sweat buckets from head to toe. Anyway we were soon on our way to Kithulgala making several stops at some paddies along the way. The journey was very uncomfortable for the three hours it took with constant breaking, tooting of horns, sharp corners and the state of traffic one would expect in India. Mercifully we arrived in a somewhat beaten up state and birded a couple of sites around the village to late afternoon where a band of rain drew proceedings to a close. A good day with five endemics seen already.
(Birds in capitals = endemics, birds highlighted = lifers)
House Crow - 50+
Cattle Egret - 50+
Great White Egret - 1
Intermediate Egret - 1
Indian Pond Heron - 30
Little Cormorant - 1
Ashy Woodswallow - 1
Asian Palm Swift - 2
White-bellied Drongo - 10
Shikra - 1
Blue-tailed Bee Eater - 5
SRI LANKA HANGING PARROT - 13
Purple-rumped Sunbird - 6
Loten's Sunbird - 3
Indian Swiftlet - ca. 300
Lesser Whistling Duck - 4
Brown-breasted Flycatcher - 2
Black-hooded Oriole - 2
Oriental Honey Buzzard - 3
Emerald Dove - 2
Indian Black Eagle - 4
SRI LANKA GREY HORNBILL - 1
YELLOW-FRONTED BARBET - 2
Green Imperial Pigeon - 10
Black-rumped Flameback - 3
ORANGE-BILLED BABBLER - 5
Yellow-billed Babbler - 12
Brown-backed Needletail - 3
SRI LANKA SWALLOW - 3
Sri Lanka Flying Fox - 2
Kangaroo Lizard
Toque Macaque
Kangaroo Lizard
Toque Macaque
Brown-breasted Flycatcher at Kithulgala - this species was the commonest Flycatcher of the trip
Crested Serpent Eagle at Kithulgala
Kangaroo Lizard - Otocryptis wiegmanni
Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot at Kithulgala - our first endemic
the view from our hotel pool
the access 'bridge' to the jungle that felt very unstable
our first view of an Indian Pitta
