Kahibella - Lanka Blue Magpie (Urocissa ornata)

Identification

Sri Lanka Blue Magpie is about the same size as the European Magpie at 42–47 cm. The adults are blue with chestnut head and wings, and a long white-tipped tail. The legs and bill are red. The young bird is a duller version of the adult. Sri Lanka Blue Magpie has a variety of calls including mimicry, a loud chink-chink and a rasping krak-krak-krak-krak.

Behavior

It is scarce and usually shy, but locally common and bolder. It associates in flocks up to six or seven, but pairs or solitary individuals are sometimes met with. A very energetic, agile bird, most of its time is spent in searching for food among foliage at all levels from the ground to the tops of tall trees. It capture the critters like hairy caterpillars, green tree-crickets, various chafer beetles, tree-frogs and lizards. The breeding season is in the first quarter of the year, so far as is known, but the nest has seldom been found. The nest resembled a small crow’s nest. It is very well concealded among small twigs and foliage near the top of the tree. The eggs number three to five and are whitish, profusely spotted and speckled with various shades of brown. They measure about 30.5 x 22.1 mm.

Location

It inhabits the heavy virgin forests of the mountains and wet-zone foot hills.

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Maha Rathu Karala - Crimson - Backed Flamback (Chrysocolaptes stricklandi)

Identification

This Flamback is about 11.5 ; tail 3.5 ; wing 5.9 ; tarsus 1.1; bill from gape 1.9. Back, scapulars, and outer surface of wings, except primary-coverts and outer webs of primaries, dull crimson, edges of feathers brighter, rump also brighter. In all other respects this species resembles C. gutticristatus except that there is everywhere more black and less white, there are only white spots on the back of the neck, and the sides of the head above the malar region and of the neck are almost all black, the superciliary stripe being represented by a row of white spots. The black borders of the breast-feathers are very broad. Sexual distinctions as in C. gutticristatus.Bill brownish or olivaceous at the base, greenish white in the middle, the tip dusky; iris yellowish white; legs and feet greenish' slate.

Behavior

This species haunting a nest-hole high up a large tree in January in such a manner as to indicate that they had young.

Location

This Woodpecker is found in forests almost throughout the island, on both hills and lowlands.

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Giramaliththa - Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot (Loriculus beryllinus)

Identification

This is a small, mainly green hanging parrot, only 14 cm long with a short tail. The adult has a red crown, rump and bill, and an orange tint to its back. Immature birds lack the orange hue to the back, have a duller rump, and have only a hint of orange on the crown.

Behavior

Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot is less gregarious than some of its relatives, and is usually alone or in small groups outside the breeding season. Its flight is swift and direct, and the call is a sharp whistled twiwittwit..twitwitwit. The lorikeet is a convivial little bird, delighting in juicy fruits, the nectar of flowers (especially red cotton), and the juice of palms collected in toddy-drawers’ pots. Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot is a bird of open forest. It is strictly arboreal, never descending to the ground. It nests in holes in trees, laying 2-3 white eggs in the first half of the year, and sometimes again in July-September. Its breeding habits are highly remarkable.

Location

This brilliantly-coloured little parrot is found everywhere in the hills up to 4,000 feet, and in the north-east monsoon it ascends a thousand feet higher; it also inhabits the low-country wet zone and parts of the dry zone to the south of the Northern Province.

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Alu Girawa - Layard's Parakeet (Psittacula calthropae)

Identification

Layard’s Parakeet is a bird of forests, particularly at the edges and in clearings, and also gardens. It is locally common. It nests in holes in large trees, laying 3-4 white eggs. This is a green parrot, 29 cm long with a tail up to 13cm. The adult has a bluish-grey head and back, separated by a green collar. There is a broad black chin stripe and the tail is blue tipped yellow. The upper mandible of the male’s bill is red, and the lower mandible is brown. The female is similar, but has a black upper mandible. Immature birds are mainly green, with a dark red bill. Layard’s Parakeet is less gregarious than some of its relatives, and is usually in small groups outside the breeding season, when it often feeds with Brahminy Starlings. Its flight is swift and direct, and the call is a raucous chattering.

Behavior

It undergoes local movements, driven mainly by the availability of the fruit, seeds, buds and blossoms that make up its diet. Its cry is quite distinctive.

Location

Forests, Gardens, Quite common in in the High Country & forested humid arrears in the low country. Uncommon in high elevations

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Watha Rathu Malkoha - Red-Faced Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus)

Identification

This is a large species at 46 cm with a long graduated tail. Its back is dark green, and the uppertail is green edged with white. The belly and undertail are white, the latter being barred black. The crown and throat are black, and the lower face white. There is a large red patch around the eye and the bill is green. Sexes are similar, but juveniles are much duller. The Red-faced Malkoha takes a variety of insects including caterpillars, giant stick insects, mantises and small vertebrates such as lizard. It occasionally may eat berries but this needs confirmation.

Behavior

It inhabits tall forest, and lives either solitary, in pairs, or in small flocks. It is shy and restless, a dweller in the tree canopy, where, like the last species, it cleverly threads its way through tangled twigs, creepers and foliage.

The breeding season is in the first half of the year and probably again in August-September. The nest is described as a shallow saucer of grass, roots and twigs, very carelessly put together, and placed in high bushes in forest with thick undergrowth. The two or three eggs are white, with a chalky surface, and they measure about 35.8 X 27 mm. 

Location

The Red-Faced Malkoha is regularly seen at Sinharaja and few other remaining rain forests, frequents associating with feeding waves. It is also found in scattered riverine habitats in the dry zone, such as Lahugala, Wasgamuwa, Manik Ganga and Kubukkan Oya.

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Konda Kawda - Sri Lanka Drongo (Dicrurus lophorinus)

Identification

• Black plumage with metallic blue or greenish-blue gloss
• Arching, helmet-like crest
• Deeply forked tail
• Red eye
• Sexes similar

Behavior

Forest , forest edges, plantations, wooded gardens.

Like most drongos, hawks after insects from open perches.

A superb mimic of the calls of other birds but always has a metallic sound.

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Pita Rathu Batagoya - Sri Lankan Green Pigeon (Treron pompadora)

Identification

Sri Lankan Green pigeon is approximately 26-30 cm in length. The head, tail and underparts are bright green, with a grey crown to the head. The legs are red and the bill is thin and grayish. The flight feathers and tail are blackish. The male has a chestnut back, usually uniform. The female has a bright green back and lacks the orange on the breast.

Behavior

This is a common species in rainforest and similar dense wet woodlands. It builds a stick nest in a tree and lays two white eggs.  Pompadour Green pigeons usually occur singly or in small groups. They eat the seeds and fruits of a wide variety of plants.

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Paduwan Bassa - Serendib Scops Owl (Otus thilohoffmanni)

Identification

The new species is a small scops owl about 17 cm in length, with a short tail, and almost uniformly rufescent upperparts but for the presence of small black spots all over the body. The face is a little darker, and underparts paler than upper parts, with the belly becoming whitish. It has no distinct, “true” ear-tufts, but see below. The irides are orange-yellow in the male and yellow in the female and juvenile. The beak, legs and claws are whitish. The legs are feathered on the tibia and upper tarsi. The vocalization comprises a single note, pu’u’u, repeated at long intervals. Male and female call in the same pattern but in different keys.

Behavior

At the time of the type description we knew that birds of a pair roosted fairly close together or well apart within their territory. Later we learnt that in some pairs the birds roost together or very close. A fledgling has been observed roosting with an adult male. Roosting height varies from about 1 to 2.5 m. A well-concealed place is chosen in dense vegetation in the undergrowth or just above it. Here the bird sits on an almost or entirely horizontal twig, usually close to dead leaves. Its size, shape and coloration blend it in perfectly with the surroundings, making it hard to detect. When an owl is in “alert mode” at its daytime roost, in reaction to possible danger in the vicinity, it quickly adopts a stance which disguises it as a short, upright, broken branch. It tightens body feathers, which are otherwise loose and relaxed, to acquire a narrower appearance. At the same time it adjusts the feathers of the facial disk, forehead and crown to give the appearance of the top of such a branch. This latter arrangement is adopted also by species of owl which have two obvious, separate ear-tufts, which are erected to enhance this effect. The Serendib Scops Owl, which does not possess ear-tufts, achieves a similar effect by compressing and flattening feathers on the forehead, forecrown and sides of the facial disk, and folding feather tracts on the forehead at the edges of the disk over the inner part of the eyes. This makes the top left and right edges of the disk stand out, with also the support of adjacent crown feathers, giving an impression of short ear-tufts. Another result is an obvious, broader and deeper V on the forehead, showing up more white, than in a bird in “relaxed mode”. At night the Serendib Scops Owl adopts this “pseudo-eartuft” arrangement only very rarely, according to our observations, probably because there is no significant advantage of such visual camouflage in the dark. It has been known that in similar situations species of owls lacking true ear-tufts adopt a camouflage pose which suggests the presence of small ear-tufts.

Location

Endemic to Sri Lanka, found thus far only in the southwest quarter of the island at Kitulgala, Kanneliya and Eratna-Gilimale Reserves, with its strongholds in the Sinharaja and Morapitiya-Runakanda reserves, which are contiguous.

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Pethi Gomara Wal Awichchiya - Ceylon Scaly Thrush (Zoothera dauma imbricata)

Between a mynah and a bulbul in size. Identified by its olive-brown upper parts, two rows of white spots on the median and greater wing coverts, characteristic markings on the face and inverted fan shaped black spots on the breast and flanks. Sexes are similar. Young have paler streaked upper parts and buff lower parts with coalescing spots. The characteristic facial pattern is present in the young but is more indistinct.

 Not uncommon in damp, evergreen forest in the wet lowlands and ranging up to 2000 metres (commoner below 1500 metres). Also occurs in secondary scrub, plantations and occasionally gardens adjacent to forest. It is scarce and local in the dry zone occurring in riverine forests.

This is a terrestrial species which feeds mostly on the ground in the typical thrush manner, turning over leaves vigorously. Birds are often met with in the mornings and evenings feeding along jungle trails. This thrush has a quaint habit of perching on slight elevations or twigs on the ground. The Spotted-winged Thrush is a beautiful songster, singing with a variety of human sounding rich whistling notes. It also utters a thin, high pitched call when alarmed or as a warning to its mate. Food consists of insects, worms etc but the bird probably feeds on berries as well.

Behavior

This is a terrestrial species which feeds mostly on the ground in the typical thrush manner, turning over leaves vigorously. Birds are often met with in the mornings and evenings feeding along jungle trails. This thrush has a quaint habit of perching on slight elevations or twigs on the ground. The Spotted-winged Thrush is a beautiful songster, singing with a variety of human sounding rich whistling notes. It also utters a thin, high pitched call when alarmed or as a warning to its mate. Food consists of insects, worms etc but the bird probably feeds on berries as well.

The species is double brooded. Nests are met with in March-April and again in August-November. The nest is generally placed in a low exposed fork of a sapling or small tree at a height from 4-8 feet within the forest. The nest looks like a mass of jungle debris collected in a fork comprising of dead and decaying leaves, stems etc with a small tolerably neat cup in the center lined with fine rootlets and leaf midribs. The rim is often finished with moss. Where moss is plentiful more of it is used in the construction of the nest.

The eggs are generally two in number. The ground colour varies from pale cream-buff to pale grey-green, profusely covered with small spots, blotches and streaks of light reddish brown all over with some underlying markings of lavender-pink. Both birds probably incubate and feed the young.   

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