For bird watching, Sri Lanka is the best country in the world for it is indeed a birds' paradise. You could view birds throughout the year because of its favourable climatic conditions being a tropical island and throughout the country in forests, jungles, lakes lagoons, streams etc.
Out of a total of about 450 species of birds, nearly 250 are resident and 23 are endemic of which the majority are found in the lowland wet zone and the rainforests of the hill country and others are migratory. According to the booklet recently published by one of Sri Lankans leading wild life companies there are 33 birds endemic to the country. Most of the endemic birds could be viewed at Sinharaja rain forests Horton plains National park and in the peal wilderness sanctuary.
Quite a number of species of birds about 150 or so are migrants from the Temperate zone. They come during the Northern winter and some even from areas as North as Siberia. Bundala in the south, 246 sq kms South east of Colombo is very famous for migratory birds especially flocks of flamingo in the jungle and in the scrubland. Thus Bundala is a paradise for Birds watchers and this area seems to be the Southern most point of bird migration. Lagoons and swampy marshes found here are really the safe places for birds for feeding and nesting. These migratory birds such as flamingo, Heroes, Storks etc are creating a colourful blend in the environs of Bundala. This is close to Kataragama and could be reaches along the coastline from Colombo.
Sinharaja rain forests is the peal wilderness sanctuary
There are special locations famous for bird watching in Sri Lanka. Firstly, the Sinharaja forest reserve in the Sabaragamuwa province and consisting parts of the districts of Galle, Matara and Ratnapura. From the bio-diversity and climatic conditions prevailing here, it had been become one of the best areas for bird life. There is such an abundance and variety of birds here, you would not be able to discover all the secrets of these elegant erotic creatures even for a life time. Large number of endemic birds have made their home here like the SL Jungle Fowl (Lanka Valikaluwa), Black-crested Bulbul ( Kalu kondaya), SL Whistling Thrush (Lanka Arongaya), SL White -eye (Lanka Sithasiya), SL Blue Magpie (Lanka Kahibella), Ashy - headed laughing thrush (Aludemalicca), Red faced malkoha (Vata Kalu Malkoha), SL Housing Parrot (Lanka Goiramallitha), SL Spur fowl (Lanka Haban kukula) etc.
This area declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1988 and as required bio-diversity, this is the most important site for bird watching in Sri Lanka and there is still undisturbed natural primary forest tracks. You could reach Sinharaja from Colombo through Ratnapura or from Galle, Matara and through Deniyaya.
|
