Bundala Wildlife: What You Will Actually See

Golden Jackal Occasional

Canis aureus

The dry zone's opportunist, trotting along a track at dawn and howling in chorus at dusk so the whole park knows where it is.

Where: Open scrub and lagoon edges. Best: Year round.

Black-headed Ibis Common Near Threatened

Threskiornis melanocephalus

White body, bare black head and neck, and a bill built for finding what it cannot see.

Where: Lagoon margins and the wet fields behind them. Best: Year round.

Pied Kingfisher Common

Ceryle rudis

The largest bird in the world that can hover in still air with no wind to help it, which is how it fishes open water no perch reaches.

Where: Hovering over the lagoons and canals. Best: Year round. Easy to watch hovering and diving repeatedly from the track.

Eurasian Spoonbill Regular

Platalea leucorodia

Feeds by sweeping that absurd bill side to side through the shallows, snapping shut the instant it touches something alive.

Where: The shallow ends of the lagoons and the salt pan margins. Best: Nov-Mar. The most dependable site, often alongside flamingos.

Greater Flamingo Regular

Phoenicopterus roseus

Several thousand birds on the Bundala salt pans in a good winter, filtering brine shrimp upside down.

Where: The salt pans and the shallow margins of Bundala and Embilikala lagoons. Best: Dec-Mar. Several thousand birds in a good winter, and the single best flamingo site on the visitor circuit.

Indian Peafowl Regular

Pavo cristatus

Wild, and behaving like a wild bird: displaying on a termite mound at dawn with leopards in the same scrub.

Where: Thorn scrub behind the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Spot-billed Pelican Regular Near Threatened

Pelecanus philippensis

A pelican that fishes the ancient irrigation tanks, and one of the few large waterbirds doing better now than it was.

Where: Fishing the brackish lagoons and roosting in the fringing trees. Best: Year round. Often in loose company with painted stork and openbill.

Bronze-winged Jacana Occasional

Metopidius indicus

Toes so long it walks across floating leaves, and a breeding system in which the female holds the territory and the males do all the work.

Where: Freshwater margins behind the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Cotton Pygmy Goose Occasional

Nettapus coromandelianus

One of the smallest waterfowl on earth, nesting in tree holes and sitting out on lily pads.

Where: The freshwater ends of the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Great Thick-knee Occasional Near Threatened

Esacus recurvirostris

A heavy, huge-eyed shorebird that stands motionless on open shingle all day and only comes alive at dusk.

Where: Bare shingle and sand along the lagoon shores. Best: Year round, late afternoon. Stands motionless in the open all day, which is exactly why it gets missed.

Pallid Harrier Occasional Near Threatened

Circus macrourus

Quarters the grassland at head height on raised wings, tilting and rocking, hunting entirely by sound and surprise.

Where: Quartering the open ground and salt pan margins at head height. Best: Nov-Mar, late afternoon. The most reliable place in the country to watch a harrier hunt, and the low slow flight is the whole spectacle.

Yellow Bittern Occasional

Ixobrychus sinensis

Freezes with its bill pointed straight up and vanishes into the reeds, which is why almost nobody sees it despite it being everywhere.

Where: Reeds at the freshwater ends of the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Sirkeer Malkoha Rare

Taccocua leschenaultii

A cuckoo that gave up on being a cuckoo: it builds its own nest, raises its own young and runs along the ground rather than flying.

Where: Thorn scrub behind the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Crab-plover Very rare

Dromas ardeola

The only bird in its family anywhere on earth, and the only wader that nests underground.

Where: Lagoon shore, occasionally. Best: Dec-Feb. Well outside its main range here and a genuine surprise.

Asian Water Monitor Common

Varanus salvator

A dragon sized lizard that swims canals and city parks, second only to the Komodo dragon in length.

Where: Lagoon margins and the Kirindi Oya. Best: Year round.

Checkered Keelback Common

Fowlea piscator

The snake you will actually see in Sri Lanka, hunting fish in a paddy channel in broad daylight.

Where: Lagoon margins and the brackish channels. Best: Year round.

Oriental Garden Lizard Common

Calotes versicolor

The everyday garden lizard whose breeding males flush blood red about the head, earning the name bloodsucker.

Where: Dune scrub and open ground. Best: Year round.

Sri Lankan Common Skink Common

Eutropis lankae

The bronze skink basking on every wall, ruin and hotel lawn in the country turned out in 2020 to be an endemic species, not the Indian one everybody had been calling it.

Where: Open ground and dune scrub. Best: Year round.

Indian Black Turtle Regular Near Threatened

Melanochelys trijuga

The dark, three keeled turtle basking on every half sunk log in the dry zone, and the northern race is found nowhere else on earth.

Where: Tank and lagoon edges. Best: Year round.

Indian Star Tortoise Regular Vulnerable

Geochelone elegans

The most trafficked tortoise on earth, and the Sri Lankan animals are the biggest and the most boldly starred of the lot.

Where: Grassy verges and open scrub between the lagoons. Best: After showers, October to December and March to April. The most reliable place in the country to find one from a vehicle.

Mugger Crocodile Regular Vulnerable

Crocodylus palustris

The broadest snout of any living crocodile, and in one Sri Lankan park block there are more of them per square kilometre than anywhere else on earth.

Where: Lagoon margins and the Kirindi Oya. Best: May to September. Often lying among the waterbirds rather than apart from them.

Bahir's Fan-throated Lizard Occasional Endangered

Sitana bahiri

A finger length lizard of the coastal sand that unfurls an orange flag from its throat and does press ups to show it off.

Where: Open sandy ground and dune scrub between the lagoons. Best: Year round, warm mornings. Look for a small lizard doing press ups on bare sand.

Indian Cobra Occasional

Naja naja

The spectacled cobra of South Asian myth, and one of the very few snakes a visitor to the dry zone parks has a real chance of seeing.

Where: Scrub between the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Russell's Viper Occasional

Daboia russelii

The snake that kills more people in Sri Lanka than any other, sitting in plain sight on a paddy bund and hissing like a punctured tyre.

Where: Scrub and grassland between the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Indian Rock Python Rare Near Threatened

Python molurus

Sri Lanka's largest snake, and in the dry season it lies out at the edge of a shrinking waterhole where every animal in the park has to come.

Where: Lagoon edges and scrub. Best: Year round.

Olive Ridley Turtle Rare Vulnerable

Lepidochelys olivacea

The smallest and most numerous sea turtle, famous elsewhere for mass nestings of thousands at once.

Where: The park's beach frontage. Best: November to March.

Sri Lankan Flapshell Turtle Rare Vulnerable

Lissemys ceylonensis

The only chelonian species found solely in Sri Lanka, split off from its mainland cousin eight million years ago, and still without a conservation status of its own.

Where: Freshwater channels behind the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Leatherback Turtle Very rare Vulnerable

Dermochelys coriacea

The largest turtle on Earth, a jellyfish hunter that dives deeper than most whales and crosses whole oceans.

Where: The park's beach frontage and the Kalametiya stretch. Best: January to June.

Indian Green Pond Frog Common

Euphlyctis hexadactylus

One of the very few frogs anywhere that deliberately eats plants, which for an order of committed carnivores is close to heresy.

Where: Lagoon margins and freshwater channels. Best: Year round.

Jerdon's Bullfrog Regular

Hoplobatrachus crassus

The biggest frog on the island, and its tadpoles hunt and eat other tadpoles, including each other when the pool gets crowded.

Where: Flooded grassland and pools between the lagoons. Best: October to January, night.

Climbing Perch Regular

Anabas testudineus

A fish that walks out of the water and hauls itself overland on its gill covers, sometimes for hours.

Where: Brackish and freshwater ditches, lagoon margins and paddy behind the dunes. Best: Year round, most obvious after rain.

Common Picture Wing Common

Rhyothemis variegata

Flies like a butterfly, not a dragonfly, on wings washed gold and black.

Where: Lagoon margins and marsh vegetation. Best: Year round.

Crimson Rose Common Near Threatened

Pachliopta hector

Flies slowly and in the open because it is poisonous and every predator on the island knows it.

Where: Scrub and lagoon-edge vegetation. Best: Year round.

Wandering Glider Common

Pantala flavescens

Makes the longest migration of any insect on earth, crossing open ocean between India and Africa.

Where: Over the lagoon margins, scrub and paddy behind the dunes. Best: October to December.

Giant Water Bug Occasional

Lethocerus indicus

Big enough to kill a frog or a small snake, and its bite is rated among the most painful an insect can inflict.

Where: Freshwater ditches and marsh behind the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Signature Spider Common

Argiope anasuja

Writes a bold zigzag across the middle of its own web, and nobody is entirely sure why.

Where: Scrub and lagoon-edge vegetation. Best: Year round.