Our great Sri Lanka birding expedition (4) Sinharaja to Kithulgala

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When : February 2025 Weather: Hot 25 to 30C

Nikon P900. Sony RX10.4

Our last morning in Sinharaja, the viewing pavilion at Forest Edge had many birds showing at eye level and we spent a happy hour shooting them before heading off on the 3 hour drive to Kithulgala which is at the border of the wetland zone of Sinharaja and the elevated mountain region…

First bird to show at breakfast time was the sunlit Loten’s sunbird
Loten’s sunbird
Female Loten’s sunbird
common iora
black capped bulbul
hanging parrot
white browed bulbul
Sri Lankan mynah S26 (Courtesy of H Tan)
Sri Lankan Swallow (E3) first seen on day 1 but only photographed here on day 4….
this was the view from the viewing pavilion of Forest Edge resort..the morning mist was rising
and in the car park on our way out….Tickell’s flycatchers appeared
Acrobatics from Tickell’s flycatcher
We stopped along the way occasionally to bird…here the Legge’s or Mountain hawk eagle
The mountain hawk eagle
Plain prinia on the wire
Black eagle soaring
A pair of chestnut headed bee eaters posed in unison
this unfortunate Wickremasinghe’s bronzeback had been run over by some traffic….
we chanced across this low flying raptor at St Claire’s Falls

And so we arrived at the Kithulgala Rest House which is something like a grand old hotel which had been left in time…charming and brilliantly located on the banks of the river Kelani where the lunch was good and the air conditioned rooms a bonus.

the Kithulgala rest house and Kelani RIver where the film ‘Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed some 70 years ago…’
after lunch we crossed the river to scout out the forest and get better views of the Indian Pitta..here he is hiding in the foliage but picked out by a small beam of sunlight
the Indian Pitta sang lustily
and then we had decent views of the Southern Mynah..not an endemic

We had some distant views of thenext endemic we had come to Kithulgala to see….but the chestnut backed owlet was elusive and perched high up…..difficult shooting so we decided to try again the next morning……where we headed to the nearby police station and the quaintly named Kithulgala owl camp…

Kithulgala Owl Camp

Sure enough, after about 15min, the owner gesticulated to us and we gathered around a tree where we finally got great views of the Chestnut Backed Owlet (E27) …not one but two!

the gorgeous chestnut backed owlet! E27
A large grey hornbill then descended and flushed the female owlet out from its nearby nesting hole and the two owlets perched together for a while….
before they decided to have a good time too!
Contented, we walked back to the police station where several greater coucals were active
Here, posing quite magnificently in the morning sunlight

So Kithulgala and its neighbourhood only yielded 2 more endemics bringing our total to 27 with 8 more to go in the remaining 2 to 3 days

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