Sinharaja Rainforest, 02.-04.02.2019

We had a 3-day weekend due to the National Day on January 4, so we used this opportunity to get out of the city and go to Sinharaja Forest Reserve, arguably Sri Lanka’s best rainforest birding site. We’ve been to the southern entrance at Deniyaya before (see trip report here), but the northern entrance is quite different, and it seems to be better for many of the sought-after birds. The biggest draw-card is of course Serendip Scops-Owl, but there were many others I had not seen before, including endemics like Sri Lanka Frogmouth and Sri Lanka Blue Magpie. This and the fact that the forest is simply beautiful in itself and has a wealth of other animals made another visit very worthwhile.

We arrived at Birder’s Lodge at 10:00, after a three-hour drive from Colombo. The lodge is nicely situated along the river, and the rooms have a small veranda. The room we had was nice but very overpriced. When we went into the forest we could get a packed breakfast, which had fruit and sandwiches. We initially wanted to stay at Martin’s Lodge, which is more basic but cheaper, and has the great advantage of being inside the reserve, but it was fully booked.

The first afternoon we walked along the gravel road that goes parallel to the river. The road goes off to the left before the bridge when driving into Kudawa town, and goes through a mix of tea, forest, scrub and secondary growth. This road leads to a house where Sri Lanka Spurfowl and Green-billed Coucal can be seen in the garden early in the morning. You can speak to the guides at the reserve to arrange transport there, as it is quite far to walk. We did not do this as it was late in the day, but we saw several nice birds. At the start of the trail we had a pair of Black-naped Monarchs, rather scarce in Sri Lanka, followed by a noisy group of the stunning Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, which unfortunately stayed rather high up in the canopy. Bird activity was quite high and other nice birds were Layard’s Parakeet, Sri Lanka Hanging-Parrot, Scarlet Minivet, Lesser Hill-Myna and Dark-fronted Babbler. We walked for about an hour until we came to a spot where we went down to the river, cooling our feet in the water and watching the fish and a Brown-breasted Flycatcher. Unexpectedly, we also saw a caecilian (either Ceylon or Lesser Yellow-banded) next to the path. On the walk back we saw a pair of Peregrine Falcons, Crested Serpent Eagle, Crested Hawk Eagle, Ashy-headed Laughingthrush and a brief view of a heron in flight that looked like a Malayan Night-Heron, but could not be relocated to confirm the ID. More common birds seen along the trail included all but one of Sri Lanka’s bulbul species, Black -rumped Flameback, Black-hooded Oriole, White-bellied Drongo, Green Warbler, Common Tailorbird and Indian Robin. The next day we were told that a guided had found a roosting Serendip Scops-Owl in one of the forest patches here. In the early evening at the lodge we saw Crimson-fronted, Yellow-fronted and Brown-headed Barbets, Green Imperial Pigeon, and a Legge’s Flowerpecker, while large numbers of elegant Crested Treeswifts and Brown-backed Needletails cruised overhead at dusk.

On Sunday morning we arrived at the park entrance at around 6:45 (it opens at 6:30) and waited some time until our guide arrived. The entrance and guide cost us less than Rs800, for non-residents it is significantly higher. The road going up to the forest from the entrance to the office where you show your tickets was closed, so we went up a steep and slippery trail, reaching the road at Martin’s Lodge. There was little bird activity on the way, but we stopped for a Hump-nosed Lizard. We ate some of our packed breakfast at the education centre, where we had a mixed species flock containing Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike, Sri Lanka Scimitar-Babbler, Orange-billed and Dark-fronted Babblers, Asian Paradise-Flycatcher, bulbuls, Sri Lanka Green Pigeons and an Emerald Dove.

We then proceeded through the office after showing our tickets and followed the main path. We stopped for Sri Lanka Junglefowl (including a hen with a tiny chick) but the highlight was when our guide spotted a perfectly camouflaged pair of roosting Sri Lanka Frogmouths. Their pattering and camouflage were amazing, but they were hard to see in the foliage. Fortunately, we stopped at another female, just a bit off the path, of which we had much better views. We passed a few bird parties, some of which had good birds like Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, Lesser Yellownape, Black-naped Monarch and a Malabar Trogon. The main special, Serendip Scops-Owl, was not cooperating however, and we returned empty-handed in this regards, despite checking several known roost sites. We turned around a short while after passing the research centre, after stopping at a beautiful Green Pit Viper. Its prey, a cute tree frog, was found in a nearby plant. On the way back we came across another two bird parties and finally got two species I had hoped to see, Red-faced Malkoha and Crimson-backed Flameback, both endemics that are beautiful and difficult to find. Another new bird for the weekend was a pair of Sri Lankan Wood Pigeons, while a Sri Lanka Spurfowl was calling, but remained unseen, relatively close to the path. Once we were back at the ticket office, it started raining, so we hurried back. We arrived quite wet at the lodge, but after putting on dry clothes we enjoyed some tea in the comfortable chairs under the roof overlooking the river, where a Stork-billed Kingfisher flew past.

On Monday morning before breakfast I walked to the start of the gravel road we were two days ago, but did not see anything new. After breakfast we walked along the road that leads to the Sinharja Adventure Camp. It leads past small local houses and gardens, and it was quite interesting seeing how the people live here. There were no special birds recorded along the way, but many species seen the previous days were seen again, including Crested Hawk Eagle. The trail verges though were full of Green Forest Lizards of all sizes and colors, from tiny green ones to large red-headed individuals. After the the walk we packed our bags and returned to Colombo.