Bird watching tours in Sri Lanka
Bird watching tours in Sri Lanka is a rewarding experience. Despite its small size of not more than 65,610 km2, Sri Lanka records 459 species of birds, and 55% of all bird orders in the world occur on the island under different genera and families. There are 34 endemic bird species in Sri Lanka, which are the priority of visiting ornithologists.
It is good to bear in mind that at least 200 species must be spotted in any good Sri Lankan birdwatching tour.
Smooth transportation, great accommodation and solid field guides are essential for a good bird watching tour as well. If you want to find out more feel free to contact our expert bird watching tour organizers here. To pick a good Sri Lankan bird watching tour, it is important to understand the visitor’s intentions as well. As Sri Lanka has a well-organized travel industry, some bird watchers may opt to include certain non-ornithological attractions to their itineraries as well. If this isn’t the case, any decent bird watching tour in Sri Lanka must include the following field visits to maximize the chances of ticking off the best spots.
1. Sinharaja rainforest reserve – Lowland wet zone
Sinharaja rainforest reserve is a bird watcher’s field paradise. It is definitely the most important birding area in Sri Lanka. Nearly every endemic bird in Sri Lanka occurs inside the Sinharaja rainforest, except for a select few. It is also home to the most well-studied mixed-species foraging flock (bird wave) in the world. For more information, visit Sinharaja.
2. Horton Plains National Park – Montane zone
Horton Plains National Park is a habitat that is set in stark contrast to the rest of Sri Lanka. Bird watching at Horton Plains can be a great experience as the park features wide wet grasslands, cloud forests, relic forests, and misty mountainous landscapes. Spotting montane endemic birds, which are not found at Sinharaja, is the main purpose of bird watching at Horton Plains.
3. A dry zone national park – Lowland dry zone
There are a number of dry zone national parks in Sri Lanka that offer great chances for seeing dry zone birds. The most popular option is Yala National Park. However, if you wish to avoid crowds for a more tranquil bird watching experience, it would be best to travel an extra day or so to a less-visited national park. Udawalawe National Park is another option for dry zone bird watching, which offers good views of birds of prey and waders.
4. A wetland – Lowland dry or wet zone
Sri Lanka has many wetland ecosystems that are well suited for bird watchers looking for waders. Some of these are located in the lowland dry zone, such as Bundala National Park or Kumana (Yala East) National Park. Others are set in the lowland wet zone, such as the Madu River. A good rule of thumb is to check the Ramsar wetlands of international importance list. However, Bundala and Kumana are already established as great wetland bird watching sites in Sri Lanka.
Apart from these essential birding sites, Sri Lanka has a lot of micro birding sites, which can maximize the chances of spotting the right birds. Choosing such birding sites depends mostly on their accessibility from the main sites mentioned in the list above. For your research, try the important bird areas (IBAs) in Sri Lanka designated by BirdLife International.
On a final note, it is important to understand that Sri Lanka is rich with diverse habitats for avifauna. To generalize, there are three distinct ecological zones depending on rainfall patterns as the semi-arid zone, the dry zone, and the wet zone.
The wet zone includes the mountainous heartland of the island, which is a montane rainforest. The highest peak is Piduruthalagala at 2524 metres. The same rainforest gradually becomes a lowland rainforest sloping towards the south-western coastal plains. One hundred and three rivers flow downhill from the central highlands.
The semi-arid and dry zones are monsoon forests and dry scrublands. Some areas are irrigated by reservoirs, which are important water sources for dry zone birds. A number of important coastal wetlands occur in these areas as well.