White-throated Flowerpecker (Dicaeum vincens)

Legge's Flowerpecker or White-throated Flowerpecker (Dicaeum vincens) is a small passerine bird. It is an endemic resident breeder in Sri Lanka. It is named after the Australian ornithologist William Vincent Legge.

About the size of the Purple-rumed Sunbird, which it somewhat resembles at a distance; the male is at once distinguished, however, by its pure-white throat and dark bluish-grey back, while both sexes have the beak short and stout-very different from the Sunbird's. 

Legge's Flowerpecker is a common resident breeding bird of forests and other well-wooded habitats including gardens. Two eggs are laid in a purse-like nest suspended from a tree.

This is a very small, stout flowerpecker, 10 cm in length, with a short tail, short thick curved bill and tubular tongue. The latter features reflect the importance of nectar in its diet, although berries, spiders and insects are also taken.

The male Legge's Flowerpecker has blue-black upperparts, a white throat and upper breast, and yellow lower breast and belly. The female is duller, with olive-brown upperparts.
 

It lives either solitary, in pairs, or in little family parties, and is not easy to meet with because it keeps mainly to the tops of tall trees, either in forests or on its outskirts. However, it is very fond of the nectar of the red cotton tree and when these trees are in flower-about Christmas time in its range-it may be found fairly easily. 

The breeding season is from January to August. The nest is often built in a Hora tree. It is a hanging pocket of felted plant down, with the entrance at the top, just below the supporting twig. The two eggs are dull white, irregularly spotted with purplish red. They measure about   16×12 mm.

This scarce little bird is found only in the rain forests of the south-western parts ofthe wet zone, including the neighbouring hills up to 3,000 feet. 

Ashy-headed laughing thrush (Garrulax cinereifrons)

The Ashy-headed Laughingthrush is a rangy bird, 23 centimetre (9 in) in length with a long floppy tail. It is rufous brown above and deep buff below, with a grey head and white throat. Like other babblers, these are noisy birds, and the characteristic laughing calls are often the best indication that they are present, since they are often difficult to see in their preferred habitat.

The Ashy-headed Laughingthrush is a resident breeding bird endemic to Sri Lanka. Its habitat is rainforest, and it is seldom seen away from deep jungle or dense bamboo thickets in the wet zone. This species, like most babblers, is not migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight.

Although its habitat is under threat, this laughingthrush occurs in all the forests of the wet zone, and is quite common at prime sites like Kitulgala andSinharaja. It builds its nest in a bush, concealed in dense masses of foliage. The normal clutch is three or four eggs.

Very slightly larger than the Southern Common Babbler, and easily distinguish from both it and the rufous Babbler by its mainly black beak, dark grey legs, grey head, and dark reddish-brown back,  wings and tail. It is also a neater-looking bird.

Like the two preceding babblers, it lives in flocks, and is a noisy bird keeping up a constant flow of 'babblings', squeaks, and chatterings, which can easily be mistaken for those of the Rufous Babbler - and which inhabits the same jungles.

The breeding season is in the first quarter the year. Ashy-headed Laughing Thrush's nest was found only in 1984. It was on a thin tree about 15 feet high. It was an untidy football-sized mass of twigs and leaves with a neat nest-cup on top. The turquoise-blue eggs are measure about   25×18 mm.

It is confined to the deep forests of the wet zone and the adjacent mountains where, on the southern and western aspects of the main range, it ascends to at least 5,000 feet.

The Yellow-Fronted Barbet (Megalaima flavifrons)

Yellow-fronted Barbet (Megalaima flavifrons) is an Asian barbet which is an endemic resident breeder in Sri Lanka. Barbets and toucans are a group of near passerine birds with a worldwide tropical distribution. The barbets get their name from the bristles which fringe their heavy bills.

Between the Red-vented Bulbul and Common Mynah in size. Sexes alike. The yellow forehead, blue face, and comparatively small beak, distinguish this bird from the last. 

Yellow-fronted Barbet is an arboreal species of forests and other woodland, including large gardens, which eats mainly fruit and only rarely insects. It nests in a tree hole, laying 2-3 eggs.

This is a medium-sized barbet at 21 cm. It is a plump bird, with a short neck, large head and short tail. The adult Yellow-fronted Barbet has a mainly green body and wing plumage, with a scaly appearance to the breast. It has a blue face and throat, and a yellow crown and moustachial stripes.

Throughout its range it is a common bird, not shy, and well known for its resounding calls, which form a pleasant feature of its haunts.The Yellow-fronted Barbet feeds on numerous kinds of berries, wild figs, and cultivated fruits such as guavas and pawpaws-being rather a pest in orchards.   It feeds its young mainly on fruit, but also on some animal food as W.W.A. Philips has published a photograph of one at its nest-hole with a gecko in its beak.

The breeding season is from February to May, with a secondary season in August-September, but an occasional nest may be found at other times of the year.  The nest-hole is very similar to that of the Brown-headed Barbet but slightly smaller- about two inches in diameter.  The cavity inside is oval and, if a new one, is about eight inches deep; but sometimes the birds use a nest for several years running, digging it deeper each year until it may be two feet or more deep.  The height from the ground varies greatly, but is usually from six to ten feet.  The two or three white, and smooth but not glossy, eggs measure about 28 × 21 mm.

It is mainly a bird of the hills which it ascends to at least 6,500 feet, but it is found in many parts of the low-country wet zone, and in scattered colonies in some dry-zone districts to the east of the mountains.   In many of its habits it resembles the Brown-headed Barbet, but is more partial to heavy forest although by no means confined to it.

Lanka Pitathabala Vana-Bassa (Glaucidium castanonotum)

The Chestnut-backed Owlet, Glaucidium castanonotum, is an owl which is endemic to Sri Lanka. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, Strigidae, which contains most species of owl.

About the size of the Collared Scops Owl. Sexes alike. This little owl is very like the last species in shape, size, and general apperance but it is chestnut on back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, and has white underparts marked with blackish shaft-streaks, and bars on the flanks. Some specimens have white spots on the outer scapulars. Irides bright yellow; feet pale yellow.

It is shy and wary, and as it frequents the tops of tall trees, usually on steep hillsides, it is seldom seen. It is very diurnal in habits, often hunting and calling in broad daylight. The Mukalan Bassa feeds mainly on insects, such as beetles, but also captures mice, small lizards, and small birds, on occasion; most likely, the larger vertebrate forms of prey are taken only when young are being fed.

The breeding season is from March to May, the eggs being laid on the bare wood in a hole in the trunk or limb of a tree. The two glossy white eggs measure about 35 × 28.2 mm.

This owl appears to have been fairly common in Legge's time in many parts of the southern half of the Island, especially the hills and wet-zone low country extending to outskirts of Colombo; but its range has undoubtedly shrunk very greatly since then, and it is now found sparingly in the remaining forests of the wet zone and adjoining hills up to 6,500 feet.

Red-faced Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus)

About the length of Common Coucal, but more slenderly built and with, proportionally, a much longer tail. Sexes alike, except that the female has white irides-those of the male being brown. This handsome bird cannot mistaken for any other species on the Sri Lankan list.

It is endemic to Sri Lanka although some old records have apparently erroneously referred to its presence in southern India.. According to Baker (1934), it is found in the 'South of Travancore, where it was obtained by Stewart together with its nests'. Later, Biddulph reported a Red-faced Malkoha in Madurai district, southern Tamil Nadu. Thilo Hoffmann late pointed out that this record would not stand up to a modern records committee, and it is now best disregarded

The presence of Red-faced Malkoha in the island is largely confined to the Sinharaja Forest Reserve and the surrounding vegetation, which is one of thebiodiversity hotspots in the world.

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.

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.

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 Ceylon Spurfowl

Size of a partridge, or of a half grown village fowl. The hen resembles a small, brown village chicken; the cock, with his white-spangled black foreparts and dark chestnut hinder parts, is unmistakable. 


It is a very secretive bird, and despite its size is difficult to see as it slips through dense undergrowth. Often the only indication of its presence is its distinctive ringing call, consisting of series of three-syllabled whistles. Kitulgala and Sinharaja are sites where there is a chance of seeing this bird.

This spurfowl is one of three species of bird in the genus Galloperdix. It is a ground nesting bird, which lays 2-5 eggs in a scrape.

Sri Lanka Spurfowl is a plump, 37 cm long bird. Both sexes have brown upperparts, wings and tail. There is a red facial skin patch, and a whitish throat. The legs are red.

The adult male has scaly black and white underparts and head. There is also extensive white spotting on the brown wings and upperback. The legs have two long spurs, which give rise to the specific name. The female has chestnut underparts and a plain brown back and wings.

Like most of the pheasant family, Sri Lanka Spurfowl is a terrestrial species. It scratches vigorously amongst the leaf litter of the forest floor for various seeds, fallen fruit and insects.

Strictly a forest bird, it is so shy and wary that its presence in a district would often pass quite unknown were it not for its unmistakable cry; this reveals that it is not uncommon in much of the more densely forested parts of its range. The cry is peculiar, ringing cackle, consisting of series of three-syllabled whistles.

Distinctly a ground bird. The food consists of various seeds, fallen berries, termites and other insects, and it scratches vigorously for them amongst the dead leaves, etc.,of the forest floor.

The breeding season is in the north-east monsoon, and sometimes a second brood is raised in July-September. The nest is a slight scrape in the ground in the shelter of a rock, bush, etc. The eggs from the normal clutch, but up to five have been recorded; they are cream or warm buff in colour, and exactly resemble miniature hens' eggs in appearance. They measure about 43 × 31 mm.

This bird widely distributed in the southern half of the Island, both in in the hills, up to 7,000 feet, and in the low country; but is commonest in the damp rain-forests of the wet zone.  It also occurs locally in riverrine forests of the dry zone, in both the northern and southern half of the island.  

Goliath Heron (Ardea goliath)

The Goliath Heron (Ardea goliath) is a large wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa, with smaller numbers in Southwest and South Asia.


This is the world's largest heron. The height is 120–152 cm (47–60 in), the wingspan is 185–230 cm (73–91 in) and the weight is 4–5 kg (8.8–11 lbs). In flight it has a slow and rather ponderous look and, unlike some other herons, its legs are not held horizontally. Male and female look similar, with an overall covering of slate gray and chestnut feathers.


The head and its bushy crest, face, back and sides of the neck are chestnut. The chin, throat, foreneck and upper breast are white, with black streaks across the foreneck and upper breast. 


The lower breast and belly are buff with black streaks. The upper mandible is black and the lores and orbital areas are yellow with a greenish tinge. The eyes are yellow and legs and feet are black. Juveniles look similar to the adults, but are paler.

Important habitats are lakes, swamps, mangrove wetlands, with few cool water, sometimes river deltas.

Goliath Herons feed on fish, frogs, small mammals and insects. A diurnal and often rather inactive feeder, this heron hunts by standing in the shallows, or on floating vegetation, intently watching the water at its feet. As prey appears, the heron rapidly spears it with open mandibles.
Its breeding season is from November to March. These birds build a large stick nest in trees overhanging water, on the ground and in low bushes.