Sri Lanka Frogmouth

After I learned that I would be spending the summer in India, my first move was to buy a guidebook for the birds of the Indian subcontinent. Upon looking through this fantastic book, I noticed that there were quite a few birds that could only be found in Sri Lanka, and I knew right then and there that I had to find a way to see these birds. After talking extensively with my dad about travel arrangements, we decided that at the end of my time in India he would come join me for four days of birding in Sri Lanka with an experienced bird guide. So in early August, my dad met me in the Kerala backwaters, and soon we were off to Sri Lanka.

Our guide told us before our trip that we would make every attempt to find all 33 Sri Lankan endemics. This was a tall task, especially in only four days, but I had faith in three of us. After three months of birding in Periyar, I knew Sri Lankan birding would be special; however, I had no idea how great it would truly be. Our first stop was Sinharaja, a rainforest known for specializing in endemics. Out of the 33 endemics, 27 of those can be found in this forest alone. The first possible endemic, and the most important, was the Sri Lankan Frogmouth, and our first chance came on the first night. As we traveled down the roughest road I have ever been on to our simple lodge in the middle of the rainforest, our guide stopped the truck and told us that this was our first opportunity. We stepped out onto the road and listened. Within five minutes there were two to three around us calling incessantly. Soon one came close enough for us to get great views and even capture a few photographs. Frogmouths are simply put – amazing birds!!

The next morning we awoke at 5:00 AM and went out in search of the rarest endemic in Sri Lanka, the Serendib Scops Owl.  Discovered in 2001, the population size of this species is an estimated 200 birds. It is one tough bird. I will not go into the details of how hard we worked to find this bird, but as dawn broke this bird was on our list … two down, 31 to go. I expected our day in Sinharaja to be impressive, and it certainly met my expectations. From Red-faced Malkoha, to Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, to Orange-billed Babbler, to Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler, to the very, very difficult Scaly Thrush, the endemics of this incredible rainforest put on quite a show. As the day was drawing to a close, we had 26 of the 27 endemics we needed in this location. The last bird was Chestnut-backed Owlet. We had been birding nonstop for 13 hours, but we could not stop with one endemic still evading us.  As we were walking back to our lodge after finding Sri Lanka Spurfowl, we came across a bird sitting in the canopy staring down at us. I immediately exclaimed, “Chestnut-backed Owlet!”  Sure enough this little owlet completed our Sinharaja sweep, a feat the three of us celebrated that night, a feat that made the other birders staying at our lodge quite jealous. We were thrilled, but the journey was not over. We had two more stops and six more endemics to go.