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BIRDING TRIP REPORT:

Sri Lanka 2019: Negombo/Kitulgala/Nuwara Eliya

26 January to 9 February 2019

By Stephen Burch, England

Negombo, Kitulgala & Nuwara Eliya

We spent our first night in Negombo which is a town by the Indian Ocean very close to Colombo airport. We then proceeded inland to Kitulgala for two nights - a small town with some rain forest nearby. After this we were driven further east to spend a further two nights at Nuwara Eliya which is known as "Little England" and is at some altitude in the hills. As a results it is cooler than elsewhere. It was our base for the early morning trip up to the Horton Plains NP which is at 2000m and home to several endemics including the rare and elusive Whistling Thrush - only usually glimpsed at dawn.

Negombo

Landing at Colombo airport early afternoon after the long, overnight (largely sleepless) flight from Heathrow, it was quite a shock to emerge into hot, humid conditions having departed mid winter England! After getting some cash from an ATM, we quickly found our Baurs driver and we were then driven the short distance to the Goldi Sands hotel in Negombo.

Another culture shock was our first taste of the traffic on Sri Lankan roads, which is generally appalling! We were very glad we weren't driving the driving! It takes a long time to get anywhere with vehicles of all sizes vying for space. Size generally appears to be the key factor on who has priority, with the long distance speeding buses the most fearsome, then heavy vehicles in all shapes and sizes, mini-buses, cars (not that many of these), the ubiquitous tuc-tucs, pedestrians and then even the odd domestic animal! With the winding roads inland and in in the hills, overtaking slow traffic is both essential but frequently hair raising. Fast reaction times appear to be essential.

Arriving at the Goldi Sands about 30mins later, we were given the traditional welcome soft drink and shown to our standard grade room which was small and without a sea view room. An upgrade to a better room wasn't possible we were told. After a short nap, we tried a short walk along the beach, hoping for my first lifers. However all we saw along the beach was masses of House Crows, Cattle Egrets and one brief view of a Cormorant - but not seen well enough to be sure of the species. Returning along the road we came across an area of palms containing a pond, almost opposite the hotel. Unsure of whether it would be wise to enter this area we viewed from the road only, but did manage to see my first lifer - Indian Pond Heron - a very common bird that we saw frequently on the tour.

Negombo to Kitulgala

The second stop (at about GPS 7.116451, 80.129656 ) had a larger area of rice and was more productive with the best being Ashy Wood Swallow, Asian Palm Swift and Sri Lanka Swallow. No time to linger though, so we were quickly back in the vehicle as we pressed on to Kitulgala.

Kitulgala

Kitulgala Rest House
We arrived at this standard hotel in time for lunch on the first day of our tour. It is very well situated overlooking a river that can be viewed from a veranda area. We stayed for 2 nights which gave us time to explore the immediate vicinity of the hotel both on our own and with our guide Dhammi. There were spectacular views from the back of the hotel over the river to the rain forest beyond. The river had Asian Openbill, Grey Wagtail and we had our only (distant) views of Stork-billed Kingfisher on wires over the river. There were distant views of Alexandrine and Layard's Parakeets in the forest beyond and over the river. Closer to the hotel was our first Yellow-fronted Barbet, Lesser Goldenback with Magpie Robin on the lawn outside the dining room.

The area around the front of the hotel and the driveway was very good for birds. Fruiting trees immediately in front of the hotel had close-up  Grey Hornbills and round the corner was another tree that had confiding Alexandrine and Layards Parakeets. There was a fruit feeder of sorts in a small bush along the drive that was attracting various birds including Hanging Parrot. Also Black and Red-vented Bulbuls were much in evidence around the car park where we also had a fly through Oriental Honey Buzzard.  

Grey Hornbill (click to enlarge)	Hanging Parrot

Alexandrine Parakeet	Layards Parakeet

After breakfast we had a very productive session with Dhammi being shown many birds along the short approach drive between the hotel and the road, although the views of many of them were fleeting and/or distant. Probably the best were the spectacular Scarlet Minivets but notable others included Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Legges and Pale-billed Flowerpecker, Brown-breasted Flycatcher etc.

Other birding sessions here produced others including Oriental White-eye, Common Tailorbird, Yellow-browed Babbler and White-browed Fantail.

Kitulgala track (GPS 6.996468, 80.41281)
Not far from our hotel, just on the other side of the nearby town, there was a small road/track that led downhill from the main road in the general direction of the river. This appeared to be a well known birding site, as we came across several other groups of birders on our two visits here. Our first visit started at about 16:00 on our first day and produced several new species, despite Dhammi pronouncing it was quite quiet! Probably the best was a tiny Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker but there were others including Green Imperial Pigeon and a super distant Mountain Hawk Eagle over a distant hillside.

The following morning we returned for a quick pre-breakfast visit, following a tip-off, to find a stunning Chestnut-backed Owlet out in the open, but somewhat distant in very poor light which made for challenging photography! 

Our third visit was pre-breakfast the next day when we went further down the track to some houses on a successful hunt for Indian Pitta - one of my main targets for the trip! To my surprise though we only saw it relatively high up perched on a branch, instead of on the ground where I'd expected it to be. Also here was the less specular but endemic Brown-capped Babbler and a nesting Spot-winged Thrush.  

Indian Pitta	Chestnut Backed Owlet (click to enlarge)

Brown capped Babbler in the gloom!	Spot winged Thrush & nest

Kitulgala - over the river
In the late morning of our only full day at Kitulgala we headed over the river using the raft ferry service provided below the hotel! Here there was a village beyond which we entered rain forest. Perhaps due to the time of day we saw very few birds, with only a poor view of Sri Lanka Myna adding to the list. Insects were however more in evidence including the very impressive Blue Mormon and Common Birdwing butterflies as well as a couple of dragonflies that I identified later. At the far point of our walk we waited sometime while Dhammi searched in vain for a roosting Serendip Scops Owl that he thought might be in the area. Fortunately we connected with one of these in Sinharaja, later on our tour. Returning we added Common Kingfisher to the trip list. The by now customary 4pm walk, this time around the hotel grounds was also quiet that day.

Common Birdwing	Common Bushbrown

Light tipped Demon	Black-tipped Flashwing

Nuwara Eliya

After two nights in Kitulgala our trip list had risen to around 60 (nearly half way to my target of 133!) and it was time to move on to Nuwara Eliya which is in the central hilly region of Sri Lanka with a very English heritage (is known as "Little England" still). The trip took around 3hrs along bumpy, winding roads through the hills, passing many tea plantations mostly with Scottish names! Pretty much the only bird of interest was a roadside Chestnut-headed Bee-Eater. We also passed an impressive couple of waterfalls and a colony of roosting Flying Fox bats.

Ferncliffe Bungalow
We arrived in time for lunch at this impressive colonial house, now a small high-standard hotel, in its own very pleasant grounds with English style gardens. There was also a wilder area in front of the bungalow. Altogether a very pleasant place to spend two nights and a considerable improvement on our previous hotel! The grounds were also quite birdy and we would have probably more if we had spent longer in them. As it was, our time and energy was quite limited for this, given the other activities lined up for us in this location. Nevertheless our hotel list here included Magpie Robin, Brown Shrike, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Green Warbler, very distant Oriental Honey Buzzard and a fly-through Peregrine. Indian Pitta was on a list made by another hotel guest, but we saw no sign of this, despite one brief early morning self guided session.

Magpie Robin (click to enlarge)

Victoria Park
On our arrival day at Nuwara Eliya, we visited this park in the town from about 16:00 to dusk. Dhammi knew where to look for the birds - along the festering stream that runs along one edge of the park! But before we got there we had spotted our first Blyth's Reed Warbler, out of cover for a few seconds and then a Sri Lanka White Eye (another endemic). Along the stream we found Indian Pond Herons but more notably a Forest Wagtail and then, in the far (&dark) corner, a delightful Kashmir Flycatcher - a brilliant bird that was unusually on show intermittently for some time. However it was quite distant for such a small bird and the conditions were very dark, requiring quite absurd ISO settings and slow shutter times to attempt to get photos with.

a
Kashmir Flycatcher

Having spent some time here, we were fortunate to connect with a splendid Pied Thrush a little further on along the same fetid stream. But it didn't stay long and quickly flew off to roost, so my photo below isn't up to much!

Indian Pond Heron	Pied Thrush

On the way out through the more normal parts of the main park, there was briefly a Brown Shrike (first of several on the trip).

Horton Plains
An early start was needed for the only full day of our stay in this region, so we could be up at the entrance to the Horton Plains NP for their 06:00 opening time, just before dawn. This entailed an 05:00 departure followed by an hours drive in the dark up a narrow winding mountain road!

Fortunately the conditions and the luck were with us that morning. After a quick and unproductive recce of a roadside pool at the park entrance in the dark (good views of Jupiter, Venus and the waning crescent moon all close together), we were quickly back in the minibus for a short drive to another much smaller roadside pool. Here it was still almost dark but we just managed to see a fleeting silhouette of the main target for today - Whistling Thrush!

However Dhammi said there was another spot a bit further on, with a slightly larger roadside pool on the right of the road.  Arriving here in the twilight we very soon had good views of another splendid male, that again required use of very high ISO and low shutter speeds to get any sort of photos. We were apparently very fortunate to get extended views (a few minutes) before it flew off.

These birds normally show only very briefly at dawn, rarely during the day. A Naturetrek party (that we had first encountered at Kitulgala) arrived too late and dipped on this one!

Whistling Thrush

Also around the pool was skulking Sri Lanka Bush Warbler (another endemic).

After this dawn success, Dhammi led us on an extended walk slowly back along the road, looking for birds, especially the endemics that are to be found up here. We were pretty successful and found all his targets, I think. Getting presentable photos of them was another matter though! We came across an extended passerine flock containing many Scarlet Minivets, with some Great Tits, Yellow-eyed Babbler, Yellow-eared Babler, Velvet fronted Nuthatches, Dull Blue Flycatcher etc.   

Scarlet Minivets (click left to enlarge)

Yellow Eyed Babbler	Velvet Fronted Nuthatch

Another target up here was the less exciting Sri Lanka Woodpigeon, but it was another endemic and they are generally not easy to spot. We were again lucky in that one seemed to be waiting for us on our return to the roadside pool and or vehicle. It gave extended if somewhat distant views as it appeared to be gathering material for its nest. 

Yellow eared Babbler	Sri Lanka Woodpigeon

Returning to the minibus we loaded up and were driven further along the road, whereupon the wooded area abruptly gave way to rolling grassland with a few deer. We had our picnic breakfast near where a famous 9 km hiking  trail departs. Not for us though! From the comfort of a picnic chair, we were then able to get three lifers without moving - Pied Bushchat, Hill Swallow and Paddyfield Pipit. Now that's my type of birding!

Pied Bushchat on vehicle roof

Accommodation Details

© All pictures copyright Stephen Burch