After arriving in Sri Lanka, you will be transferred to a comfortable hotel close to the airport to rest and recuperate after a long flight. For anybody not in a mood to rest, a walk in the hotel gardens will produce some of the commoner birds that we will encounter during the rest of the holiday such as Brown-headed Barbet, Black-hooded Oriole, Purple-rumped & Loten’s Sunbirds & Black-rumped Flameback. With batteries fully charged, we will drive on the following day to the lush lowlands of Kithulgala our overnight destination for two nights to commence our quest for the island’s 33 plus endemics and sub-continental specialties. Our eco-lodge type accommodation is nestled in rainforest vegetation by the side of Kelani river. This was the setting for the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Bridge of the river Kwai’ filmed here in the 50’s.

The well-wooded gardens around our accommodation offer plenty of rich pickings and we will be able to enjoy our first endemics in the form of Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Black-capped Bulbul & Yellow-fronted Barbet. Other highlights may include Square-tailed Black Bulbul, Gold-fronted Leafbird, Orange Minivet, Yellow-browed Bulbul & Green Imperial Pigeon. Soon we will cross the river by means of a wooden dug-out canoe to reach Kelani Valley Forest Reserve to continue our quest for endemics. We will look for the ultra-elusive endemic Sri Lanka Spurfowl and as the dusk sets in, the sub-continental endemic Sri Lanka Frogmouth and if lucky the newly discovered avian jewel Serendib Scops Owl.

Following day will be spent in a combination of bird-rich patches looking for the endemics including Green-billed Coucal, Layard’s Parakeet, Chestnut-backed Owlet, Brown-capped Babbler & Crimson-backed Flameback. Some of the other highlights will include Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, Besra, Black Eagle, Lesser Hill Myna, Rufous Woodpecker & migrants Indian Pitta, Brown Shrike & Blue-tailed Bee-eater.

After this excellent introduction to the island’s avifauna, we will drive to Sinharaja World Heritage Site Reserve, which represents the largest expanse of lowland rainforest in Sri Lanka and the premier site for endemics where a ‘mixed-species bird flock’ could yield an exciting array of birds. According to a study done since 1981, Orange-billed Babbler and Sri Lanka Crested Drongo constitute the two nuclear species of the flock being present in 92 & 89 % respectiely of the flocks studied so far. We will be able to observe them without going into too much pains but the other flock-associated endemics such as Red-faced Malkoha, Ashy-headed Laughing Thrush, White-faced Starling, Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler & Legge’s Flowerpecker will require a bit of an effort. We will also search for Malabar Trogon, Lesser Yellownape, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Dark-fronted Babbler, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Black-naped Monarch & Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike in this feeding frenzy. Our accommodation here is a family-run guest house, which overlooks the virgin forest just 200 m from the park's entrance. An additional full day’s visit to this magical rainforest will be done to clean up the remaining endemics including Sri Lanka Myna, Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush and that blue and chestnut knock-out Sri Lanka Blue Magpie. We will also look for Sri Lanka Bay Owl in a day roost discovered in Jan, 2007.

After a few of hours of local birding to soak up the early morning activity, we will drive to the dry lowlands of Udawalawe National Park where a totally different avi-fauna awaits us. We will explore this excellent national park comprising of open grasslands interspersed with shrubs & trees in open-top safari jeeps. Some of the highlights may include dry zone specialties such as Malabar Pied Hornbill, Blue-faced & Sirkeer Malkohas, Green Bee-eater, Coppersmith Barbet, Yellow-eyed & Tawny-bellied Babblers, White-rumped Shama, Rosy Starling and Orange-breasted Green Pigeon. We could improve our raptor tally today with Crested Hawk Eagle, Pallid Harrier, White-bellied Sea Eagle & Grey-headed Fish Eagle. We will also be able to obtain our first views of Asian Elephant which is present in fair numbers in this park. We stay overnight at a comfortable hotel close to the park.

Penetrating deeper into the dry zone, we reach Tissamaharama, which lies superimposed on the ancient provincial capital of ‘Magama’ with its stupa, inscriptions, and ancient man-made tanks dating back to 3rd century B.C. Some of these lily & reed covered tanks, evidence of a once thriving hydraulic civilization are excellent for birding and we will search in them for Yellow and Black Bitterns, Purple Swamphen, Purple Heron, Painted Stork, Cotton Pygmy-goose, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Indian Reed Warbler & Spot-billed Pelican. We will arrive at a nearby palm grove at an appointed time to take a glimpse of a pair of White-naped Woodpeckers. Today we will also improve our owl tally with Brown Fish Owl, Jungle Owlet and Indian Scops Owl. A colonial Resthouse overlooking a waterbird roost is our base tonight.

Following morning we will explore mudflats and saltpans of Bundala National Park a RAMSAR wetland for large numbers of waterbirds such as Red-necked Phalarope, Curlew Sandpiper, Lesser & Greater Sand Plovers, Small Pratincole, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveller, Caspian Tern, Brown-headed Gull and Greater Flamingo. Travelling further south we come across the vast wilderness expanse of Yala. We will check into a luxurious game lodge where we will spend 2 nights. We make two exciting visits to Yala National Park, Sri Lanka’s premier National Park. Birding will be excellent and we will easily be able to reach an area checklist in excess off 100 species during our stay here and these may include Sri Lanka Junglefowl, Black-necked Stork, Great and Indian Thick-knees, Brahminy Myna, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Barred Buttonquail, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, the recently split endemic Sri Lanka Woodshrike & as dusk sets in Indian & Jerdon’s Nightjars. Yala is famous for its big game which include Leopard, Sloth Bear & Elephant. Yala Block 1 comprising of 141 sq.km has close to 40 individual Leopards identified by their facial spot patterns, which represent the highest density of Leopards anywhere in the world.

We will abandon the dry lowlands and retreat up to the cooler interior of Nuwara Eliya (1890-m), the famous hill station of Sri Lanka, which still bears evidence of its colonial past with its English-style holiday homes, a racecourse and a fine 18-hole golf course. We will make several stops en route to Nuwara Eliya for some ‘high-value targets’ one of which include the ultra-secretive montane endemic Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush which if bagged today, will preclude a very early start tomorrow for Horton Plains National Park. We will look for it at a crepuscular hour when it’s mostly in its element before reaching our comfortable overnight retreat which is a star-class hotel in Nuwara Eliya. Drop in temperature at Nuwara Eliya will necessitate sweaters although some of you may welcome this change from the heat of the lowlands.

Situated 2,100-m above sea-level, Horton Plains is the highest plateau in Sri Lanka. This magnificent national park comprise of moss-covered cloud forests home to Gondwanaland relic flora and grasslands. It is the only national park in Sri Lanka where visitors are allowed to walk and we will explore this picturesque park for several highly sought-after montane endemics: Yellow-eared Bulbul, Sri Lanka White-eye, Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, Dull-blue Flycatcher and Sri Lanka Bush Warbler. Some of the other goodies may include Pied Bush Chat, formidable Mountain Hawk Eagle, newly spit Himalayan Buzzard & the potential split Indian Blackbird. The vast expanse of grasslands in Horton Plains provides ample grazing for a fair number of Sambar Deer. Other mammalian highlights may include Bear Monkey which is the thickly coated mountain race of the vegetarian Purple-faced Leaf Monkey of the lowlands.

Late afternoon will be spent in Victoria park which is an urban park established in 1897 to commemorate the 60th coronation jubilee of Queen Victoria. This should qualify as one of the best urban parks for birding as evidenced by pilgrims of birders flocking here to see the scarce montane migrants Pied Thrush and Kasmir Flycatcher, which almost exclusively winter in Sri Lanka. This visit will also produce several other migrants in the form of Forest Wagtail, Indian Blue Robin and with a bit of patience the secretive Slaty-legged Crake. Yet another excellent dinner will mark the end of a fabulous day in the highlands.

Next, we descend to the ancient hill capital Kandy, the cultural-epicentre where the age old rituals still continue in the historic Temple of the sacred Tooth-relic. As we descend, vast stretches of tea gardens dominate the landscape – a cash crop introduced by the British which is currently the country’s 3rd highest revenue earner, which is followed by tourism. En route we will pause at a local tea factory to see the production process of the fabled ‘Ceylon tea’ & some Hill Swallows nesting inside the factory. We will also enjoy a fine cuppa. Reaching Kandy, we will check in to 3 star nature resort, surrounded by well-wooded surroundings to spend some time off to sample the hotel’s pool and wellness treatment centre before a leisurely late afternoon stroll in the hotel gardens to fill any remaining gaps and try to improve our sightings of Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, Crested Goshawk, Crimson-backed Flameback and Indian Blue Robin. A fine buffet dinner with a spread of many eastern and western delicacies will end yet another memorable day in this holiday.

After enjoying a bit of a lie-in on the following day and breakfast at a more social hour, we will visit the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kandy, founded by the British in 1821. Our walk here may produce potential split Common Hawk Cuckoo, Alexandrine Parakeet & the newly split Sri Lanka Small Barbet in addition to some obvious botanical attractions such as Double-coconut, Giant Jawa Fig & Canon-ball tree. A noisy roost of several thousand Flying Foxes will too be hard to ignore with their constant squabbles for landing rights.

We will say good-bye to the fussy fruit bats & drive back to drive to a comfortable transit hotel at Katunayake, which will be our final accommodation for the trip. A fine farewell dinner & a final log will mark the end of this memorable birding holiday and you will be transferred to the airport close to mid night/or early next day to catch your flight home.