Blue Magpie — Photo: Susan Myers

Sri Lanka is teeming with birds, including a large number of rather fancy endemics. Its people welcome tourists with open arms—never more so than now when peace reigns supreme. We have produced a superbly comprehensive itinerary that will give us the very best opportunity to see most, if not all of the Sri Lankan endemics, in addition to a number of more wide-ranging species and some very neat mammals.

Our tour will focus on the island specialties such as Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Sri Lanka Junglefowl, Sri Lanka Wood-Pigeon, Sri Lanka Hanging-Parrot, the spectacular but elusive Red-faced Malkoha, Green-billed Coucal, Yellow-fronted Barbet, the handsome Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, Spot-winged Thrush, White-faced Starling, and Brown-capped and Orange-billed babblers. We will also be treated to some of the most wonderful waterbird spectacles in Asia. Bundala and Yala national parks are considered by many to be among the best birding areas in Asia. As many as 110 species are regularly recorded during a morning's walk or drive including five species of stork, thousands of Palearctic shorebirds, which feed along the drying edge of the tanks (ancient man-made lakes), and large numbers of the local Spot-billed Pelican, as well as a host of "bush-birds" such as Sirkeer Cuckoo and the uncommon Blue-faced Malkoha.

Our tour will start in the exuberantly rich rainforests of Sinharaja, Sri Lanka's last major remaining area of tropical wet lowland forest. This area is the single most important site on the island and is home to such cosmic species as Red-faced Malkoha and Sri Lankan Frogmouth. From our attractive hotel in Nuwara Eliya in the highlands, we will search for some of Sri Lanka's most elusive species. Here, amongst these lovely montane, moss-covered rhododendron forests of the Horton Plains, we will have our best chance of finding the surprisingly elusive Sri Lanka Whistling-Thrush, Sri Lanka Bush-Warbler, and Sri Lanka Wood-Pigeon. We will also visit the great cultural antiquities of Kandy and Sigirya where the birding can also be very good.

Good to excellent accommodations; wonderful food; easy to moderate terrain with some moderate hiking; midday breaks; warm and hot conditions with moderate humidity in the lowlands, can be very chilly at high altitudes.