When: February 2025 Weather: Hot 25 to 30C

Nikon P900 Sony RX10.4

With 22 out of 35 endemics so far, we were under no illusions that the remaining 14 birds would be easier….so it was that on the third day, we set off to Kudawa bridge to seek the Green billed coucal with high hopes….

We descended the hillside near the river where Nila heard the call of the coucal and we found it skulking amongst the bushes….it just would not come out and teased us by hopping in and out …it moved further into the forest, crossed the river and onto another forested area on either side of our trail….it then flew across the path several times and this at least allowed us spectacular views of the green bill on the typical coucal body…..great sighting but unfortunately it flew so fast that all our group managed after an hour was this terribly blurred shot of it in flight with the green bill glowing…

We eventually had to admit defeat and content outselves with just an excellent sighting but poor photos and moved on to the Singharaja Forest again…this time we took the jeep and bumped our way along to Martin’s Lodge again to see what else would come….

We then decided to head into the Sinharaja trail again to see what else we could find..it was fairly quiet until on our return walk a few hundred meters from the entrance when our guides found a mini bird wave and somehow helped to amplify it…

This bird wave occupied us for a good hour or so and by the time we left for lunch it was nearly 3pm…..and just as we were nearing our hotel, Nila diverted us up another narrow lane and parked….he said there’s something special here….we asked how far? 100m was the answer…..so we started trekking up a reasonable incline for 100m…..at which time there was no sign of any bird…only a steepening of the incline to 45degrees…..for another 100m! What could possibly be up there? We eventually reached a queue of birders ahead of us queueing to see something…..(like the queue going up the last part of Everest…actually we felt like we had just climbed Everest!)

And as we slowly descended, dragging our aching limbs, we were told not to go straight to the bottom as there was something else to see in the dark forerst…

We headed back for ‘lunch’ at 5pm and set off again at 630pm to try for the spotted wood owl which we dipped on but then was told there was a roosting giant pitta nearby…

So the end of day three brought us to 25/35 endemics….but with sightings of the bay owl, we were happy…if only that darned green billed coucal had been more accommodating….