SRI LANKA- A TRIP TO HABARANA LODGE

Yep, I definitely should have done this post earlier. This post is about my trip to Habarana Lodge, where I went on a birding tour.
I got up at 6.30 am with my dad. We ate breakfast at the Chia Village hotel, then headed over to nearby Habarana Lodge. While we walked, we watched a brahminy kite fight off a house crow over the nearby wetland and a flock of cormorants passing us by. In a tree, a giant squirrel looked at us. Purple-rumped sunbirds drank nectar from flowers while little green bee-eaters flew at insects.

A brahminy kite looks at a crow in that annoyed way
Soon we were off on the tour. Before long, I spotted my first lifer, a grey-breasted prinia. Soon the basic forest birds of Sri Lanka were showing themselves. White-browed bulbuls, red-vented bulbuls, Indian black robins, brown-headed barbets and a beautiful paradise flycatcher all showed themselves.

The pretty grey-breasted prinia perches on a branch

The pretty Asian paradise flycatcher is very hard to photograph. This is so far the best shot I have got of one. It shows the female bird. The male has longer tail feathers.
A sunbird stopped in a tree and gave us some good views of its plumage.

Purple-rumped sunbird in a tree. This is the male.
We continued on to a clearing, where yellow-billed babblers played in the sunshine. Then, a smaller bird appeared. LIFER! DARK-FRONTED BABBLER! Of course, it was too fast for the camera, but I almost got it. Next time, I will get a good picture of it. But, as if to make up for the babbler, one of the usually shy grey mongooses came up close and gave us a good look at it!

A grey mongoose. I am not sure if this is a grey or brown mongoose. If you are better at identifying mammals than me, please help.
We continued on and I spotted heaps of butterflies. Glassy blue tigers, common Indian crows and plain tigers danced in the air before my eyes. Then we reached a clearing that was full of birds! Lifer after lifer! Tawny-bellied babblers, thick-billed flowerpeckers and Oriental white-eyes were just too quick for my camera! This trip gave me 5 lifers so far! When we headed back to the lodge, a grey-headed fish eagle was too shy for the camera. However, a great cormorant was not. Then we headed off to Trincomallee. For that part of the journey, you will have to look at my post on Pigeon Island