Sri Lanka (375 / 436). What are the best countries for a passionate birder to move to? And why? I discovered this map a while ago, hidden somewhere at the not so easy to navigate BirdLife International’s website, and I have used it as my computer wallpaper ever since. Usually, I interchange some birdy wallpapers several times per month, but this one has stayed for several months already. It makes me think what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? Why am I here? MORE

From the Sunday Times in Sri Lanka. Last Monday (January 18, 2010), this country reached a milestone with regard to animal research when a booklet on the ‘Guidelines for Ethics Review of Research Proposals Involving Animals in Sri Lanka’, was launched at a simple ceremony held at the Colombo Medical Faculty presided over by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo, Prof. Tags: animal research sri lanka MORE

And in India, when Strycker tied the previous one-year record, his guides Sanu and Harsha took a fair amount of trouble to make sure that a special bird, the Sri Lanka Frogmouth (“nocturnal and not easy to see!”) BIRDING WITHOUT BORDERS: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World. By Noah Strycker. Houghton Mifflin, 352 pp., $27. ISBN 978-0-544-55814-4. The most impressive photograph in Noah Strycker’s new book is not one of a bird, but of the author. MORE

Aisles of exhibitors tempted visitors with birding trips to such far-flung locations as Colombia, Kenya, and Sri Lanka, and grown men and women got all kid-in-a-candy-store at the optics booths. Obsessive. Strange. Inscrutable. Yes, birders of every stripe came out in droves (flocks?) for the American Birding Expo , held this past weekend just outside of Philadelphia. MORE

The chapter on Sri Lanka, where Gooddie combines a vacation with his girlfriend, largely invisible elsewhere in the book, with his search for Indian Pitta, is to my taste one of the best parts of the book. It’s my fantasy and it’s yours: Quit the job, say good-bye to the family, and bird. Just bird. It’s what I dream of every Monday morning. British birder Chris Gooddie, my new birding hero, not only dreamed the fantasy, he lived it. MORE

Beside India, Lynx Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of South Asia covers Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Mammals of South Asia (Paperback) Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka Pages 173 Dimensions 14 × 22.8 MORE

In such a case, you might opt to book an eastbound flight, or a series of flights, from Lisbon to Sao Tome and Principe, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, then Sri Lanka, Thailand, Borneo, PNG, Tahiti, Ecuador, Guyana and finally to Costa Rica…. Further east lies Sri Lanka with its 440 species, among them 33 endemics, and about 230 birds possible in two weeks. Presuming that you want to bird Costa Rica, you would book a southbound flight (from N. MORE

When he returned to Portugal in disgrace after usurping his position from the rightful governor, Sampayo supposedly took tulip bulbs with him from Sri Lanka. This tale too, however, does not hold up to scrutiny because tulips do not occur in Sri Lanka and the island itself is far from the route Sampayo’s ships should have taken. MORE

Whilst leading a birding tour to Sri Lanka, I spotted a flash of bright white in a lily-choked wetland near Ambalantota in the south-east of this verdant island. Birds Bird Love Week courtship jacanas mating Pheasant-tailed Jacana Sri LankaA bright flash of white caught my attention in this lilly-choked wetland Closer investigation revealed a stunning male Pheasant-tailed Jacana perched atop a female. MORE

Some of those “statistical errors” came as surprises to me, e.g. Cuba, Bolivia, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Thailand (this is also a clear message to their tourism boards to invest more into promoting avitourism). I had no intention of making a questionnaire or analysing the results. I was just curious what the US birders dream about, so I posted a question in the ABA’s FB group: a) what are the most popular foreign destinations and b) where would you go with unlimited funds? MORE

Sri Lanka Thrush Zoothera imbricata [ map ] [ my records ]. Scaly Thrush is split into four species, following Rasmussen and Anderton (2005): White’s Thrush Zoothera aurea; Scaly Thrush Zoothera dauma; Nilgiri Thrush Zoothera neilgherriensis; and Sri Lanka Thrush Zoothera imbricata. Nilgiri Thrush and Sri Lanka Thrush are monotypic. On a recent visit to Tokyo, Japan, I came across a beautiful bird that I took to be a White’s Thrush , Zoothera dauma. MORE

As Bill Oddie noticed in his foreword to ‘Wild Sri Lanka’ (2nd edition) by Gehan De Silva Wijeyeratne, this island paradise is probably the only country in the world where almost all books on wildlife were authored by a single person. Even the claim that Sri Lanka is the world’s best safari destination outside of Africa comes from him. Wild Sri Lanka brings together top wildlife stories, many of which have come to light only in the recent years. MORE