Sri Lanka's Endemic Birds

A client travelled on our 'Sri Lanka - Endemic Birds' tour and submitted this entry to our writing competition.

The endemic Yellow-fronted Barbet by Colin Brown

My recent Naturetrek endemic birds trip to Sri Lanka (which also included a delightful few days bobbing gently on the Indian Ocean looking at Blue Whales and dolphins) was one I had long anticipated.

As always, and I suspect this is true of many keen birdwatchers, my pre-trip packing began with binoculars, telescope and tripod, and relevant bird books being safely stashed in my luggage with priority. However, for this trip these essentials were quickly augmented by various books and pamphlets on mammals, reptiles and insects of Sri Lanka together with my ‘secret weapon’ - my trusty bat detector.

Whilst it may seem unusual for a ‘bird man’ to be interested in bats, my many nature trips to various parts of the world have taught me that, even on the best trips, there are ‘dead’ times during a day when the daytime species had long since departed to their rest and the night creatures were obscured by the darkness, when activities tend to be restricted to enjoying a well-earned beer and making sense of the copious notes of sightings made during the day. Whilst I have no objection to undertaking both of these activities these times are often very fruitfully filled by a spot of bat detecting.

For those not familiar with this particular activity the principles are simple. As we know most bats (with the exception of Fruit Bats) emit high-frequency sounds with which to locate and catch prey. Each species, or group, tends to emit these sounds in different bands and even with a simple inexpensive bat detector these sounds (outside normal hearing) can be translated into audible clicks which, with a little background research, can help identify the species.

And so, armed with my bat detector I would spend a few minutes each evening and morning pointing my small transistor radio sized detector into the inky sky to see (or rather hear) what bounced back. It was amazing.

There are, my pre-trip reading told me, some 30 species of bat in Sri Lanka. Some are easy to see, particularly the Indian Flying Foxes which can often be seen lazily flapping overhead during daylight hours. Others require the use of technology as outlined above to detect and so it was over the course of this short trip to Sri Lanka that I managed to detect no fewer than 10 different species. For those with an interest in these things they were: a species of Sheath-tailed Bat; a Leaf-nosed Bat; at least two different species of Pipistrelle Bat; a Free-tailed bat; a Horse-shoe Bat; at least three species of Fruit Bat, and something that, despite some post-trip research, still remains a mystery!

But what of the birds, I hear the birders call? Well, these early evening and morning activities didn’t in any way get in the way of the key purpose of the trip, namely birding, and in particular the pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 33 endemic species.

To say that we failed this quest would be a cruel misrepresentation. In reality we saw 32.5 of the possible 33 endemic species. The .5 refers to a bird that, despite a number of brave attempts, eluded us as far as a sighting is concerned but we did, on more than one occasion get the Chestnut-backed Owlet to at least betray its presence by calling back to us. Hence the .5 score given.

Our guides (Susantha and Saman) were exceptional bird guides, but their knowledge extended much further than the avian world. Like all good guides they took great delight in finding that some, if not all, of their group had interests which extended beyond the sphere of ornithology. In this lies one of the arts of good guiding, namely an ability to extend a general knowledge of the nature and wildlife around without losing sight of the fact that the main purpose, of this trip, was to see and identify birds. And so, whilst pure numbers and ticks can represent a successful trip, additional pleasures come from seeing and learning about other aspects of the natural world around: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects and plants.

In addition to the bats, what of other mammals? In all I saw a total of 29 species of mammal on this trip. These ranged in size from the largest the world has ever known (Blue Whale) and the largest land mammal on earth, the Elephant (Asian variety) right down, in size, through deer (both Spotted and the majestic Sambar), Wild Boar, three species of Monkey, to Mongoose and some small unidentified rodents.

Reptilian life was equally rich. Three species of snake was seen (Merrem’s hump-nosed Viper, Rat Snake and Keel-backed Water Snake) together with many different species of lizard and gecko.

As for the insect life in Sri Lanka, the most noticeable and spectacular were, of course, the butterflies as they flitted through the forest and along the forest tracks or, in the case of the Birdwing’s, glided high above. Indeed, as we walked along the forest paths our movement caused small explosions of colour to appear before us betraying a huge variety of these wonderful creatures as a myriad wings took flight.

In short, my advice to all bird watchers (whether of the twitching variety or otherwise) is to take a few minutes each day to note and take pleasure in the other creatures around. After all, even if you cast you eyes upon a small and seemingly uninteresting insect rest assured it will be food for something and maybe, just maybe, around the corner will be two avian eyes belonging to a Chestnut-backed Owlet, concentrating upon it as well, although for very different reasons.

As to whether you should pack a bat detector in your luggage as well that is, of course, a personal choice. However, if you do it will certainly add to the pleasure of your trip and, even if you don’t locate many bats, because of its propensity to pick up the jangle of cutlery as well, it has the added benefit of giving you a head start when it comes to dinner being served!

Read more about our 'Sri Lanka - Endemic Birds' holiday.