Colombo Wildlife: What You Will Actually See

Indian Flying Fox Regular

Pteropus giganteus

A fruit bat with a metre and a half of wingspan, hanging in noisy thousands from a tree in the middle of town.

Where: Roost trees in parks and around the wetlands. Best: Year round, dusk.

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: Talangama and Bellanwila marshes and the surrounding paddy. Best: Year round. One of the large waterbirds that makes a city wetland worth an early morning.

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: Talangama tank and the city canals. Best: Year round. One of the best things about the Colombo wetlands, and visible from the bund.

Bronze-winged Jacana Regular

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: Talangama and Bellanwila, walking the lily pads. Best: Year round. Shares the tanks with the pheasant-tailed jacana, and comparing the two on one visit is worth doing.

Cotton Pygmy Goose Regular

Nettapus coromandelianus

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

Where: Talangama and Bellanwila, among the lotus. Best: Year round. Sits low among the leaves and is easily missed. Scan the lily pads rather than the open water.

Sri Lanka Swallow Regular

Cecropis hyperythra

A deep chestnut swallow with a long forked tail, hunting over paddy and open country the length of the island.

Where: Over the wetlands and canal margins. Best: Year round. Bridges and culverts are the nest sites.

Spot-billed Pelican Occasional 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: Talangama and the larger city wetlands. Best: Year round. Genuinely present inside a capital city, which is the point of the Colombo page.

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: Reed fringes at Talangama and Bellanwila. Best: Year round, dawn and dusk. Best found at first light when it flies low across a channel and shows the dark wings.

Indian Pitta Rare

Pitta brachyura

Nine colours on a ground bird the size of a thrush, and it arrives every October to spend the winter hopping about in leaf litter.

Where: Wooded gardens and the wetland margins. Best: Nov-Mar. Turns up in city gardens surprisingly often in the winter months.

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: Beira Lake, the canal system and Muthurajawela marsh. Best: Year round. Wildlife you can watch from a city pavement, which is unusual anywhere.

Checkered Keelback Common

Fowlea piscator

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

Where: Muthurajawela marsh and the city canal system. Best: Year round. One of the easiest wildlife sightings in the capital.

Common House Gecko Common

Hemidactylus frenatus

Sticks to glass using van der Waals forces across billions of microscopic hairs, not glue and not suction.

Where: Hotel and apartment walls, lit shopfronts. Best: Year round, night.

Oriental Garden Lizard Common

Calotes versicolor

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

Where: Street hedges, parks and garden walls. Best: Year round.

Golden Tree Snake Occasional

Chrysopelea ornata

A fast, elegant climber that can also glide, and one of the most common snakes seen in Thai gardens and temples.

Where: Suburban gardens and coconut plantation. Best: Year round, daytime.

Oriental Rat Snake Occasional

Ptyas mucosa

A long, fast, wide eyed snake that races across open ground and is one of the region's great rodent controllers.

Where: Wetland margins, canal banks and suburban gardens. Best: Year round, daytime.

Saltwater Crocodile Occasional

Crocodylus porosus

The largest living reptile and the ocean going giant of crocodiles, now virtually gone from Thai waters.

Where: The city canal system, Lake Bolgoda and Muthurajawela marsh. Best: Year round. Roughly thirty medium to large animals live in the canals of a capital city.

Little File Snake Rare

Acrochordus granulatus

Loose baggy skin covered in rasping granular scales, used to grip slippery fish that no smooth snake could hold.

Where: Muthurajawela and the brackish canal margins. Best: Year round, night.

Asian Common Toad Common

Duttaphrynus melanostictus

The ubiquitous warty toad of doorsteps and gardens, hoovering up insects under every night light.

Where: Street lights, park edges and garden paths after dark. Best: Year round, night. The classic sight is a ring of toads under a street lamp during a termite swarm, taking them out of the air.

Common Hourglass Tree Frog Common

Polypedates cruciger

The endemic frog most visitors meet first, usually sitting on a bathroom wall rather than in a forest.

Where: Suburban gardens, marsh edges and buildings. Best: Year round, night.

Skittering Frog Common

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis

Disturbed, it does not dive. It skips across the surface like a flat stone, and it can launch from open water with nothing to push against.

Where: Canal margins, park ponds and marsh. Best: Year round.

Sri Lanka Wood Frog Common

Hydrophylax gracilis

The most catchable endemic frog in Sri Lankan farmland, and it will climb a stem over water then drop straight in when you get close.

Where: Muthurajawela marsh, canal margins and suburban wetland. Best: Year round, night.

Indian Green Pond Frog Regular

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: Muthurajawela and the city wetlands. Best: Year round.

Ceylon Killifish Common

Aplocheilus dayi

Hangs motionless at the surface with an iridescent green spot between its eyes, which is how you find it.

Where: Marsh channels and ditches at Thalangama, Diyasaru and Beddagana. Best: Year round.

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: Marsh channels and paddy edges at Thalangama and Beddagana. Best: Year round.

Green Chromide Regular

Etroplus suratensis

One of only three cichlids in all of Asia, and the other two are its close relatives.

Where: The Negombo lagoon and the connected canal system. Best: Year round.

Common Mormon Common

Papilio polytes

Females come in three different forms, two of which impersonate butterflies that are poisonous to eat.

Where: Gardens, parks and the wetland margins. Best: Year round.

Common Picture Wing Common

Rhyothemis variegata

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

Where: Marsh channels at Thalangama, Diyasaru and Beddagana. 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 marsh channels and open ground at Thalangama and Beddagana. Best: May to September and October to December.

Oleander Hawkmoth Occasional

Daphnis nerii

Camouflaged like military fatigues and fast enough to cross the Mediterranean, it hovers at flowers like a hummingbird.

Where: Gardens, hotel plantings and park edges at dusk. Best: Year round, dusk.