Sri Lanka 3 - Nuwara Eliya

Nuwara Eliya (Little England) is set at a height of over 1800 metres (6000 ft) amongst the hills and mountains of central Sri Lanka. The climate is similar to England, hence the name, and the bird life includes some of the rarer species and endemics.

We only stayed one night in Nuwara Eliya, arriving late afternoon and leaving early the next morning but I did manage to get a couple of hours before dark in Queen Victoria Park which offered the opportunity of seeing some of these birds

It looks like a typical English manicured park but the trees and scrub at the back of the park are less well  managed and it was here that most of these pictures were taken.

Brown Shrike - Lanius cristatus

Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike - Hemipus picatus

A Yellow-fronted Barbet. It stayed high in the tree but I eventually managed to get enough detail in the picture to be able to identify it. An endemic so a good find.

Yellow-fronted Barbet - Megalaima rubricapillus

Another endemic, the Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler, this one feeding young and very difficult to photograph as it stayed in deep cover.

Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler - Pomatorhinus melanurus

Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler - Pomatorhinus melanurus

White-breasted Waterhen - Amaurornis phoenicurus

I had seen a White-breasted Waterhens before but this was the first out in the open. The Tailor bird I had seen a couple of times in the park before this one eventually sat up nicely on a branch for me to photograph.

Common Tailorbird - Orthotomus sutorius

The ever present Red-vented Bulbul

Red-vented Bulbul - Pycnonotus cafer

Oriental Magpie Robin - Copsychus saularis

I had seen an image of a Great Tit in my Helm Field Guide so was not surprised when I found one in the garden. It is a common bird back home so I did not pay it much attention. It was only when I got back home and was searching on the web that I found that the Sri Lanka species had been split off and was now referred to as a Cinereous Tit - Parus cinereus race mahratturum.

There was one final bird which was located by another birder as we were leaving the park. It was very dark by then but he could hear the call and we eventually we saw it moving around. He identified it from the call as a Kashmir Flycatcher but you could only see it as a dark shadow with no indication of colour. Personally I could not hear the call and had no idea what it was.

Being a photographer I attempted a shot. I managed two frames before the camera refused to fire probably due too it's inability to focus on anything. Picture taken at ISO 10000 and 1/3 of a second in near full darkness.

Clearly not a Kashmir Flycatcher.

Not a particularly good picture but at least it does show that this is not a Kashmir Flycatcher which has grey brown upper parts with deep rufus throat and breast. It does look good for a Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, blue grey head and breast with yellow underneath and yellowish green on top. They are the same size at 13cms and listening to xeno-canto their calls, to me, sound very similar.

Unfortunately this is one that got away, I will never know for sure.