Helmet Vanga - Madagascar 2024

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Monday 14 December 2015

Sri Lanka - Day 1 - 2/12/15

Colombo Airport to Kithulgala
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


 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