BIRDING NUWERA ELIYA

While visiting Bandarawela in the Sri Lankan hills to meet relatives, I went on a trip to Nuwera Eliya. A friend had told me that there was a hotel where reliable roosting brown wood owls could be seen. We visited this hotel early in the morning.
At first the hotel didn't seem very birdy. We walked down a path into the forest, then just a few hundred metres from the hotel we got stunning views of two lifer brown wood owls.

Probably my best shot of the brown wood owl, it still doesn't really do the bird justice

The forest around the owls was very thick and we hiked forward from there. Several forest wagtails, Tickell's blue flycatchers and Asian brown flycatchers were seen but not photographed. Eventually we came into a more open area, there were some endemic Sri Lankan wood pigeons here, as well as a distant lifer hill myna and some rose-ringed parakeets. A fruiting tree attracted a brown-headed barbet. Near the end of our walk, a flock of grey-headed canary flycatchers, Asian brown flycatchers and oriental white-eyes was seen, along with a barking deer. Unfortunately the conditions weren't very good for photography and my best shot of the wood pigeon is too bad to show on this blog.
While eating breakfast at the hotel we sat in front of a birdbath. This turned out to be very productive and we got close views of secretive birds like brown-capped babblers, Tickell's blue flycatchers, oriental white-eyes, great tits and purple-rumped sunbirds.

This stunning male Tickell's blue flycatcher didn't stay at the bath for long

This Asian subspecies of the great tit looks very different to the European subspecies

Secretive brown-capped babblers are endemic to Sri Lanka

While we were there a massive flock of oriental white-eyes visited the birdbath

All in all it was well-worth checking out this hotel. If anyone is interested, the name of the hotel is Surrey Birds.