Sri Lanka Giant Squirrel - Ratufa Macroura ශ්‍රී ලංකා දඩුලේනා

Sri Lanka Giant Squirrel is the National Animal of Sri Lanka.This animal is active mostly during the cooler part of the day mean from dawn to about 9am in the morning and from about 4pm to until dusk in the evening. There are three sub species has identified in Sri Lanka. They are Ratufa Macroura Macroura (Distribution - from the highest peaks to the down about 1200 m), Ratufa Macroura Dandolena (Distribution - Dry Zone lowlands), and Ratufa Macroura Melanochra (Distribution - Low country wet zone, The Kelani River Valley, Sinharaja Rain Forest, and forested parts of Kalutara, Galle, and Matara districts). #Squirrels #Wildlife #Adventure

Birding in Sinharaja with Boon

Birding in Sinharaja always gives me an opportunity to enhance my birding experience and therefore when I get an opportunity to go to Sinharaja rain forest I hardly miss it. This time a request came from one of my relative who serves as a doctor in the cancer hospital, Maharagama to accompany Mr. Boon, a Singaporean who is on a special tour to Sri Lanka for a week for a lecture series in Maharagama cancer hospital, to Sinharaja after his lecture series for two days visit.





Leaving Colombo around 6.30 in the evening on 4th of December Friday, we were able to reach Martin’s simple lodge in the mid night after a very tiresome journey due to the very bad road conditions and to thanks Martin still our dinner was waiting for us.

Amila, one of the most experienced ornithology tour coordinators in Sri Lanka and the founder of the Birdwing Nature Holidays gave my wake up call coincidently he has happened to sleep the adjoining room. Joining with all we had our breakfast and just before we leave for the nature walk we were able to had observe Malabar trogan, scarlet minivets, black crested bulbuls, Sri Lanka Mynas in Martin’s place.



Imagine how lucky our friend are, just right on the entrance gate even without entering to the forest we were able to spot the most elusive bird Red faced malkoha on a very low canopy which is not usual in this height including Sri Lanka Blue magpie, Crested drongo, orange billed babblers, yellow browed bulbuls, Sri Lanka jungle fowl etc. walking just few yards from the entrance one Chestnut backed owlet flew away after allowing us to have a good look on it. The nature walk left so many sweet memories to Boon because this is his first visit to Sinharaja. My day’s highlight was the Indian Blue Robin we were able to spot just few yards away from the research center.

Ceylon bird wing, Common Blue bottle, Blue Mormon, Crimson Rose, Ceylon Tree nymph, Commander, White four ring are some of the butterfly highlights while Green vine snake, Sri Lanka Keel back water snake, Giant squirrel, purple faced leaf monkey are some of the other highlights that boon made a note of them.





While having our traditional Sri Lank an lunch including dry fish, Pol Sambol etc. served by our host Martin after the tiresome nature walk, we had the privilege of having the company with Mr. Gehan De Silva Wijeratne, author of the most number of field guides used by the naturalists in Sri Lanka and a Sri lank an wildlife promoter who currently serves as the CEO to the Jetwing Eco Holidays.

Getting up to the noise of the Sri Lanka Blue Magpie in the following morning packed our things and came back to Colombo after the breakfast while spotting some birds around Martins lodge. On our way back to Colombo we were able to spot some village birds including a Common wood shrike before we reach to Ratnapura.

Camping in Sinharaja with a group of students from UK

A group of eleven students with two lecturers from UK led by Mr. Joss joined the camp site organized by the Eco Team on 24th October 2009 for a one night camping. Filled with full of fun they made this night remarkable by having dance with the light of camp fire and at the end of their dance there was a special request to Upali (the guide) present a Sri Lankan dance with Joss since he has been in Sri Lanka for three years. All these activities followed by the B.B.Q. dinner despite that Joss requesting rice and curry because he has a special taste in that as a result of working three years in Sri Lanka for an international school in Colombo.



Having all that fun last night the nature walk to Sinharaja forest was started around 9.00 am with sunny weather conditions by rewarding us not to worry too much about the leeches.



By not having rain for two weeks the forest was little dry and not provided much opportunities for birding. Once again Joss became the main actor by expressing his views that he is keen to see a snake and quenching his thirst we were able to spot two green pit vipers so that he became the happiest man in the group.



Purple faced leaf monkey, giant squirrel, Sri Lanka Kangaroo lizard, green pit viper, praying mantis are some of the sights that this group of students seems to be impressed.
Ceylon tree nymph, common blue bottle, blue morman, crimson rose, Ceylon bird wing, blue glassy tiger, commander are some of the butterfly species that were recoded during this nature walk.

Umbrella birding

For my second tour of the month of August to Sinharaja organized by the Eco team with 18 people from UK including many dead scaring children for leeches we started our nature walk on 26th morning with raining conditions compelled us to put on our umbrellas and rain coats. Not to mention the rain was continued until we end of our walk in the forest specially leaving a life long experience to the children because of the blood thirsty leeches.

Compared to other days the sightings were less but we were lucky to observe a feeding flock which includes most elusive Red faced Malkoha, Malabar Trogon, Sri Lanka Blue magpie, Crested drongo, Orange billed babblers etc. Some of the main highlights were the green pit viper we observed during the middle of the nature walk. Ultimately this gave me a different experience of birding with an umbrella instead of binocular, camera and field guides as usual.

Female bird of the Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl

Mostly the female bird of the Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl is not publishing. I hope this will be helpful for most of the people.

FOGSL Forest Bird Flocks Study Workshop at Sinharaja from 20th March 2008 to 23rd March 2008

From 20th March 2008 to 23rd March 2008 I participated for the Forest Birds Flocks study workshop conducted by the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka led by Mr. Amila Salgado who is an experience birder. We were very lucky to see large number of species within few minutes after entering to the forest from the Kudawa entrance for the first time. We were able to see Sri Lanka Blue Magpie,Sri Lanka White faced starling,Sri Lanka Myna,SriLanka Wood Pigeon, Red faced malkoha,Crested Drongo, Indian Cuckoo, Malabar trogan,Orange billed babblers, Dark fronted babblers,Sri Lanka Junglefowl,Pale billed flowerpecker,Ashy headed laughing thrush, brown capped babblers,Sri Lanka Hanging parrot,Layard's Parakeets any many other bird species. In the second day we almost repeated the bird list what we saw on the first day itself.FOGSL President Mr. Rahula Perera also joined the group from 2nd day onwards. Evening I was trying to spot owls with Amila but with our hard luck we were not able to see any of those. In the Third day we walked up to the research centre & almost repeated the same bird list as we saw in the previous two days. Evening I met Ms.Brigitt who is from Canada at Martin's Lodge. She was a very keen birder & specially has come to Sinharaja to see red faced malkoha.I was able to show her the red faced malkoha while we were chatting at Martin's Lodge. She was very happy. Final day I was able to spot a Crested Serpent Eagle while I am coming back to the lodge. In conclusion this was a very good trip to enhance my birding experience. Also I was able to see many of the rare species with ample time of observing them.