BIRDING THE SRI LANKAN HILL COUNTRY, OR HORTON PLAINS NP

It has been a while since I posted about my Sri Lankan trip, so here I am again. Today's post is about the Sri Lankan hill country, where we were staying with family in the town of Bandarawela (not sure if I spelled that correctly). On our first morning my father and I decided to go on a trip to Horton Plains National Park, one of the best places to go birding in the hill country where a lot of the endemic birds can be seen. All endemics are in bold.

This Sri Lankan wood pigeon surprised us on the road, giving great views

The drive was short but a little bumpy, with a stop-over for a Sri Lankan wood pigeon along the road as well as some more Jerdon's leafbirds, scaly-breasted munias and plain prinias, and soon we arrived at the park. As soon as we got to the park gates I spotted two endemics, a yellow-eared bulbul and a dull-blue flycatcher, with hundreds of Pacific swallows flying around in the sky! Three lifers within five minutes of staying in the park! And it only got better.

This yellow-eared bulbul was feeding in a tree next to the park gates! 

There were dull blue flycatchers everywhere, feeding on the ground and perching in trees

We continued our walk along the trail. There were dull blue flycatchers pretty much everywhere, flitting from tree to tree, feeding on the ground, basically showing off for the camera. In trees were a few shyer Sri Lankan white-eyes as well as some great tits, a single rufous babbler and a giant squirrel. Finally, on the ground were indian blackbirds. As we went further along we managed to tick off more of the hill country endemics. We saw yellow-eared barbets flying off into the trees far too quickly for us to get a photo, and soon the only endemics we were missing were the arrenga (Sri Lankan whistling thrush) and Sri 

A Sri Lankan white-eye staying still on a branch

A very lousy shot of a rufous babbler I spotted 

Lankan bush warbler.  Eventually we came out of the forest and passed into the grassland. Paddyfield pipits were everywhere, along with pied bushchats, Pacific swallows, a grey wagtail and a single brown shrike, but no bush warbler. Soon we arrived at the visitor center in the middle of the park. 

Paddyfield pipits were everywhere

Less common, but still there, were these pied bush chats

We spotted this brown shrike near the visitor centre

Again, dull blue flycatchers were basically everywhere. This time, large-billed crows and feral pigeons joined them. Though there were not many good birds around the center, there were many tame sambur deer foraging on the grass, as well as a rather shy mongoose.

Sambur deer are common throughout Horton Plains

Indian brown mongooses can be very shy, so it was nice to finally get a photo of one that wasn't dashing into the bush

A zitting cisticola, also known as a fan-tailed warbler

We drove further along, in search of the endemics we hadn't seen. We came into more grassland, where all the above birds were seen along with a zitting cisticola and a soaring brahminy kite. Suddenly the car we were in slowed down dramatically. We stopped and leaned out to get a very, very lousy picture of what was a . . .

SRI LANKAN BUSH WARBLER!

(the photo is way too lousy to be showed on this blog)

We drove further along, spotting more of the birds above. We then came to the end of the road and headed back, not able to find the 'Arrenga Pool' (a pool of water the whistling thrush or arrenga apparently can often be seen at). We saw most of the endemics, but that arrenga will have to wait for another visit.