Sinharaja Wildlife: What You Will Actually See

Toque Macaque Regular Endangered

Macaca sinica

A small endemic monkey with a swirl of hair on the crown arranged like a cap, and the most studied primate on the island.

Where: Troops in the mid canopy along the trails. Best: Year round. Watch the dominance order for five minutes and it is obvious who outranks whom.

Purple-faced Langur Occasional Endangered

Semnopithecus vetulus

A shaggy black leaf monkey with white side whiskers, and the highland form is so hairy it is known as the bear monkey.

Where: Canopy along the research station trail. Best: Year round. A leaf eater, so it has no interest in you at all, which makes watching it better.

Golden Palm Civet Rare Vulnerable

Paradoxurus zeylonensis

An endemic civet the colour of wet honey, moving through the canopy at night and almost unknown to visitors.

Where: Fruiting canopy trees on a spotlight walk from the buffer villages. Best: Year round, after dark. Eye shine is the usual first sign. Look up rather than along the ground.

Black-capped Bulbul Common

Rubigula melanicterus

Olive and bright yellow with a neat black hood, and one of the first endemics a Sinharaja morning delivers.

Where: Mid storey and understorey along every trail. Best: Year round, morning. Joins mixed flocks. Black hood and white iris are unmistakable.

Orange-billed Babbler Common

Argya rufescens

The engine of the Sinharaja feeding flock: hear this bird and everything else is about to arrive.

Where: Noisy parties working the low branches and litter along every trail. Best: Year round, morning. Learn the chatter. When you hear it, stop walking: the whole flock is about to arrive.

Sri Lanka Drongo Common

Dicrurus lophorinus

The flock's alarm system, and a shameless mimic that will imitate a hawk to clear a branch of competitors.

Where: Sallying after insects flushed by the rest of the flock. Best: Year round, morning. If the flock suddenly goes quiet, look for the drongo before assuming a raptor.

Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill Common

Ocyceros gingalensis

A slim, quiet hornbill with no casque, common enough to see from a hotel garden and endemic all the same.

Where: Fruiting figs along the entrance road. Best: Year round. Pairs, loud repeated cackle, no casque.

Sri Lanka Junglefowl Common

Gallus lafayettii

The national bird, and the wild ancestor's cousin: a jungle cockerel with a yellow-centred red comb found nowhere else on earth.

Where: Scratching along the entrance road and forest tracks. Best: Year round, early morning. Check the comb: the yellow centre is the field mark, and it is visible at any useful range.

Yellow-fronted Barbet Common

Psilopogon flavifrons

A green barbet with a yellow forehead and blue face that calls all day from somewhere you cannot find it.

Where: Fruiting trees along the trails. Best: Year round. Look at fruit rather than tracking the call, which leads people in circles.

Ashy-headed Laughingthrush Regular Near Threatened

Argya cinereifrons

The other half of the Sinharaja flock's core, and the one that keeps to the ground where you cannot see it.

Where: Ground and low undergrowth with the feeding flock. Best: Year round, morning. Works the lowest layer while the babblers work higher, so it is the harder half of the flock core to see.

Brown-capped Babbler Regular

Pellorneum fuscocapillus

A ground babbler that sings a clear rising three-note whistle from inside a thicket and refuses to come out.

Where: Undergrowth beside the trails. Best: Year round, morning. Patience at a gap in the thicket is the only method.

Chestnut-backed Owlet Regular

Glaucidium castanotum

A tiny chestnut owl that hunts in daylight, which makes it the one owl on the island you can reasonably expect to see.

Where: Exposed branches in the mid canopy, often being mobbed. Best: Year round, morning. A sudden commotion of babblers and bulbuls in one tree is worth investigating.

Crimson-backed Flameback Regular

Chrysocolaptes stricklandi

A big crimson woodpecker that hammers so hard you hear it before you see the tree move.

Where: Large trunks along the trails. Best: Year round. You hear the hammering before you see the tree move.

Layard's Parakeet Regular

Psittacula calthrapae

A bluish-grey parakeet with a green collar and a coral bill, and the only parakeet on the island you cannot see anywhere else.

Where: Small flocks between fruiting trees along the entrance road. Best: Year round. Noisy, and usually seen in flight before it is seen perched.

Spot-winged Thrush Regular Near Threatened

Geokichla spiloptera

The best singer in Sri Lankan forest, and it does it at first light from the understorey.

Where: Low branches and litter along the trails, singing before light. Best: Year round, dawn. Be on a trail before first light. The song carries and usually leads to the bird.

Sri Lanka Blue Magpie Regular Vulnerable

Urocissa ornata

Cobalt and chestnut with a blood-red bill, and it comes to look at you rather than the other way round.

Where: The research station trail and the Kudawa entrance road, often with the mixed feeding flock. Best: Year round, first three hours after dawn. Bold enough to work the trail edge a few metres away. Wait for the flock rather than chasing the bird.

Sri Lanka Green Pigeon Regular

Treron pompadora

A pigeon the colour of a lime leaf, sitting motionless in a fig until it moves and gives itself away.

Where: Figs along the entrance road and the trails. Best: Year round. Look at fig trees for longer than feels reasonable. It is good advice for half this list.

Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot Regular

Loriculus beryllinus

A sparrow-sized green parrot with a crimson crown that sleeps upside down like a bat.

Where: Flowering and fruiting trees, often overhead in fast flocks. Best: Year round. Find a feeding tree and wait. The upside down roosting is real and worth watching for.

Sri Lanka Hill Myna Regular Near Threatened

Gracula ptilogenys

Glossy black with orange wattles on the nape only, and a voice that carries across a whole valley.

Where: Dead snags above the canopy along the entrance road. Best: Year round, morning. Loud ringing whistle, usually in pairs, usually on the highest bare branch.

Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler Regular

Pomatorhinus melanurus

A long curved yellow bill coming through the undergrowth, usually attached to a bird you only half see.

Where: Low layers of the mixed feeding flock. Best: Year round, morning. Pairs stay within a few metres of each other, so finding one finds both.

Indian Paradise Flycatcher Occasional

Terpsiphone paradisi

The adult male grows tail streamers three times the length of his own body and trails them through the canopy like ribbon.

Where: Mid canopy along the trails, often in the mixed species feeding flocks. Best: Year round. Being in the flock when a long-tailed male crosses the trail is one of the moments people remember.

Indian Pitta Occasional

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: Leaf litter along the lower trails and forest edge. Best: Nov-Mar, early morning. Listen for the whistled two note call, which is how almost everyone finds it.

Legge's Flowerpecker Occasional Near Threatened

Dicaeum vincens

A thumb-sized endemic that spends its life in the canopy and is usually a white flash going the other way.

Where: Flowering and fruiting canopy trees. Best: Year round. Find a tree in fruit and watch it. Walking will not produce this bird.

Red-faced Malkoha Occasional Vulnerable

Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus

A long-tailed cuckoo with a bare crimson face that slips through the canopy in silence, and the bird most Sinharaja trips fail on.

Where: High in the canopy with the mixed feeding flock, research station area. Best: Year round, morning. Find the flock, then work upwards. It clambers slowly in the top layer and is missed by anyone scanning at eye level.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth Occasional

Batrachostomus moniliger

A bird that looks like a broken branch, sits still all day within arm's reach, and is invisible until someone points at it.

Where: Known day roosts in the buffer forest. Best: Year round. Pairs press together on a low branch and rely on not being noticed. Close views once found.

Green-billed Coucal Rare Vulnerable

Centropus chlororhynchos

A heavy, skulking coucal with an apple-green bill, and one of the hardest endemics on the island to actually see.

Where: Thickets beside the research station trail and the Kudawa road. Best: Year round, dawn for the call. Check the bill: apple green, not black. Usually a call rather than a bird.

Serendib Scops Owl Rare Endangered

Otus thilohoffmanni

Found by its call in 2001 and described in 2004, the first new bird species discovered in Sri Lanka for over a century.

Where: Dense understorey thicket near known day roosts. Best: Year round, dusk for the call. Entirely dependent on a guide who knows a current roost. Those roosts move and are closely held.

Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush Rare Near Threatened

Zoothera imbricata

A big scaly-patterned thrush that works the forest floor in deep shade and vanishes the moment it knows you are there.

Where: Shaded forest floor away from the main trails. Best: Year round, first hour of light. Encounters are brief. Quiet walking in the first hour is the only realistic window.

Sri Lanka Spurfowl Rare

Galloperdix bicalcarata

Heard on every Sinharaja morning and seen on almost none: a skulking forest gamebird that calls loudly and shows itself never.

Where: Thick undergrowth beside the trails, calling at first light. Best: Year round, dawn. Genuine sightings are usually a bird crossing a trail at distance in poor light. Expect to hear it and not see it.

White-faced Starling Rare Endangered

Sturnornis albofrontatus

A canopy starling with a white face, confined to a shrinking scrap of rainforest and genuinely hard to catch up with.

Where: Fruiting canopy trees viewed from a vantage point rather than from beneath. Best: Year round. Most visitors leave without it. Watch into the crown, not up through it.

Common Lanka Skink Common

Lankascincus fallax

The little bronze skink that shoots out from under every leaf you turn at Sinharaja belongs to a genus found nowhere but this island.

Where: Litter along every trail at Kudawa and Pitadeniya. Best: Year round.

Green Forest Lizard Common

Calotes calotes

The biggest lizard in the trees here, and in the breeding season the male's head and throat turn crimson.

Where: Trunks and low branches along every trail. Best: Year round. Breeding males hold the crimson head for weeks, so it is a realistic target.

Kangaroo Lizard Common

Otocryptis wiegmanni

An endemic lizard that runs away on its back legs like a tiny dinosaur, then freezes halfway up a sapling and dares you to find it again.

Where: Trail edges and stream banks at Kudawa and Pitadeniya. Best: Year round. One of the most frequently encountered lizards on the trails. Watch for the bipedal sprint.

Green Vine Snake Regular

Ahaetulla nasuta

A snake shaped like a hanging creeper, with a horizontal keyhole pupil that lets it judge distance like a bird of prey.

Where: Hanging in bushes at eye level along the Kudawa and Pitadeniya trails. Best: Year round, daytime. Look for a green creeper that is swaying when nothing else is.

Hump-nosed Lizard Regular Vulnerable

Lyriocephalus scutatus

The only member of its genus anywhere on earth, with a bulbous knob on its nose and a bony lyre across its skull, and it is slow enough to photograph properly.

Where: Understorey and thin twigs along the Pitadeniya and Kudawa trails; sleeping animals on night walks. Best: January to March and July to August. Pitadeniya is the classic corner. It moves slowly enough to photograph properly.

Hump-nosed Pit Viper Regular

Hypnale hypnale

The commonest cause of snakebite in Sri Lanka, and small enough to sit unnoticed in leaf litter.

Where: Trail edges and litter on guided night walks around Kudawa and Pitadeniya. Best: Year round, night.

Kandyan Day Gecko Regular Endangered

Cnemaspis kandiana

One of more than forty day geckos on this island, every single one of them found nowhere else, and they work rock faces in daylight instead of hunting at night.

Where: Boulders and tree buttress roots along the Kudawa trails. Best: Year round, morning. Seeing a Cnemaspis is easy. Naming it to species is not.

Sri Lankan Green Pit Viper Regular

Trimeresurus trigonocephalus

An endemic green viper that hangs at eye level in the rainforest at night, and the one snake most visiting naturalists actually come away with.

Where: Branches over the trails at Kudawa and Pitadeniya on a guided night walk. Best: Year round, night. Sits still at eye level, which is why it photographs so well.

Sri Lankan Cat Snake Occasional

Boiga ceylonensis

An endemic night hunter with a broad flat head on a neck like a pencil, and it comes into guesthouses to hunt the geckos on your wall.

Where: Branches and buildings around the Kudawa research station on night walks. Best: Year round, night.

Golden Tree Snake Rare

Chrysopelea ornata

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

Where: Buffer zone gardens and forest edge. Best: Year round, daytime.

Large Shieldtail Rare Vulnerable

Rhinophis saffragamus

A burrowing snake that has turned its tail into a shield, and there are twenty species of them on this island and nowhere else.

Where: Soil banks and tea smallholdings on the buffer zone margins, after rain. Best: May to September and October to November, after heavy rain.

Rough-horned Lizard Rare Endangered

Ceratophora aspera

A horned lizard the length of a finger, living in the leaf litter of the lowland rainforest and shaped exactly like a dead leaf.

Where: Litter along the Kudawa research station trails and in the Pitadeniya sector. Best: January to early April. Days rather than hours, and only with a guide who works the litter.

Whistling Lizard Rare

Calotes liolepis

The only lizard in Sri Lanka that whistles at you, which is just as well, because otherwise you would never find it.

Where: High on trunks in the forest around Kudawa. Best: January to March.

Sri Lankan Krait Very rare Near Threatened

Bungarus ceylonicus

An endemic krait of the wet zone hills that has bitten perhaps six people in recorded history.

Where: Forest edge and buffer zone gardens, on guided night walks. Best: Year round, night. A good year for a resident guide, not a target for a visitor.

Asian Common Toad Common

Duttaphrynus melanostictus

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

Where: Buffer zone gardens and the Kudawa approach, but not inside closed forest. Best: Year round, night. Its absence from primary forest is diagnostic in itself.

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: Buffer zone lodges, outbuildings and forest edge vegetation. Best: Year round, night. The single most reliable endemic frog in the country.

Common Shrub Frog Common Vulnerable

Pseudophilautus popularis

The thin high call you take for a cricket at dusk is usually this, and it is the first endemic frog most visitors meet without knowing it.

Where: Low vegetation along the Kudawa approach and buffer zone on a guided night walk. Best: May to September and October to November, after dark. Listen at knee height. The call is thin and high and sounds like an insect.

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: Buffer zone paddy, ditches and stream margins. Best: Year round, night. It climbs a stem over water then drops straight in. Watch the water, not the plant.

Kelaart's Dwarf Toad Regular Vulnerable

Adenomus kelaartii

An endemic toad in an endemic genus that is active by day, which makes it the one you can find on an afternoon walk rather than a night one.

Where: Stream margins and midstream boulders along the Kudawa and Pitadeniya trails. Best: May to September and October to November. Males call from boulders in midstream. Follow the sound to the rock.

Sri Lanka Rock Frog Regular Vulnerable

Nannophrys ceylonensis

Its tadpoles do not swim. They crawl about on wet rock beside the torrent, grazing in a film of water a few millimetres deep, and the male guards the eggs.

Where: Wet rock beside the waterfalls and fast stream sections. Best: May to September and October to November, night. Work the wet stone beside the falls, not the water itself. The tadpoles are on the rock too.

Corrugated Water Frog Occasional Near Threatened

Lankanectes corrugatus

An ancient relict in a lineage found nowhere else on earth, and it was the only member of its genus until a second one turned up in 2018.

Where: Marsh edges and slow water in the buffer zone at night. Best: May to September, night.

Hollow-snouted Shrub Frog Occasional Vulnerable

Pseudophilautus cavirostris

Look at it side on and the snout is visibly scooped out, as though someone had pressed a thumb into it.

Where: Understorey foliage on guided night walks in the buffer zone. Best: May to September, after dark. Check the snout in profile. The scoop is the whole identification.

Sri Lanka Pug-snout Frog Occasional Near Threatened

Uperodon obscurus

A frog that eats almost nothing but ants and termites, which is what the absurdly narrow mouth is actually for.

Where: Buffer zone forest floor and garden edges on night walks. Best: May to September, night.

Golden Shrub Frog Rare Endangered

Pseudophilautus auratus

Genuinely gold in torchlight, which in a genus of browns and greys is the whole point.

Where: Deep forest foliage well beyond the trail head, with a guide who works the interior. Best: May to September, after dark. Gold in a torch beam among a genus of browns.

Southern Whipping Frog Rare Endangered

Taruga longinasus

A lowland outlier in a mountain genus, and its scattered range is the ghost of a wet forest belt that no longer joins up.

Where: Vegetation over lowland stream pools, with a specialist guide. Best: May to September, night.

Ceylon Caecilian Very rare Vulnerable

Ichthyophis glutinosus

A limbless amphibian that looks like an earthworm, hunts by tentacle, and coils around its eggs underground until they hatch.

Where: Under rotting logs and in damp soil banks in the buffer zone. Best: May to September, after heavy rain.

Nagao's Pug-snout Frog Very rare Endangered

Uperodon nagaoi

Its entire life cycle happens in a few hundred millilitres of rainwater trapped in a rotting trunk.

Where: Old growth trees with water filled hollows, with a specialist. Best: May to September, night.

Noellert's Toad Very rare Critically Endangered

Duttaphrynus noellerti

It moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered between assessments, which makes it the clearest single marker of what is happening to the lowland wet zone.

Where: Lowland rainforest floor, with a specialist guide and considerable luck. Best: May to September, night.

Taylor's Caecilian Very rare Vulnerable

Ichthyophis pseudangularis

Sri Lanka's three caecilians are told apart mainly by counting the rings around the body, which is not a technique anyone would guess at.

Where: Damp soil banks near water in the buffer zone. Best: May to September, after heavy rain.

Ceylon Killifish Regular

Aplocheilus dayi

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

Where: Still backwaters and roadside ditches in the buffer zone. Best: Year round.

Black Ruby Barb Occasional

Pethia nigrofasciata

A grey fish for eleven months of the year that turns crimson and jet black to breed.

Where: Gravel-bedded runs in the buffer zone. Best: May to September.

Ceylon Combtail Occasional

Belontia signata

A gourami that breathes air, guards a nest of bubbles and will see off a fish twice its size.

Where: Still pools and backwaters in the buffer zone streams. Best: January to March.

Ceylon Snakehead Occasional Vulnerable

Channa orientalis

A snakehead with no pelvic fins at all, found only in Sri Lanka's wet zone streams.

Where: Shaded stream margins and undercut banks in the buffer zone. Best: January to March and July to September.

Cherry Barb Occasional Vulnerable

Rohanella titteya

One of the most widely kept aquarium fish on earth, and it lives wild in about a dozen shaded streams on one island.

Where: Slow shaded stretches of the buffer zone streams. Best: January to March and July to September.

Fire Rasbora Occasional Endangered

Rasboroides vaterifloris

A shoal of these in a shaft of forest light is the reason the Victorians called it the pearly rasbora.

Where: Slow shaded streams and pools in the buffer zone. Best: May to September and January to March.

Barred Danio Rare Endangered

Devario pathirana

Described only in 1990, and known from a handful of streams in one river basin.

Where: Fast shaded runs on the southern side towards Deniyaya. Best: January to March and July to September. The Deniyaya approach sits at the edge of the only basin this fish occurs in.

Ornate Paradisefish Rare Endangered

Malpulutta kretseri

The only species in its genus, anywhere, and it lives in shaded puddles of a stream in one corner of one island.

Where: Slow shaded seepages and leaf-littered shallows in the buffer zone. Best: January to March.

Shining Gossamerwing Regular

Euphaea splendens

Black wings that flash metallic blue-green as the male turns in a shaft of light over a forest stream.

Where: Rocky stream sections in the buffer zone, at sunlit breaks in the canopy. Best: January to March and July to September.

Ceylon Tree Nymph Occasional

Idea iasonia

Drifts through the forest like a sheet of paper caught in a current, and barely seems to fly at all.

Where: Canopy gaps along the buffer zone trails. Best: January to March and July to September.

Giant Asian Mantis Occasional

Hierodula membranacea

A big green ambush hunter that turns its head to watch you, forelegs folded as if in prayer.

Where: Low vegetation and lit buildings in the buffer zone at night. Best: May to September, night.

Sri Lanka Birdwing Occasional

Troides darsius

The largest butterfly on the island, the size of a small bird, and it lives nowhere else.

Where: Canopy gaps and the forest edge along the buffer zone road. Best: January to March and July to September.

Atlas Moth Rare

Attacus atlas

One of the largest moths on Earth, its wingtips shaped and coloured like a cobra's head.

Where: Lit buildings and forest edge in the buffer zone. Best: October to December, night.

Ceylon Rose Rare Critically Endangered

Pachliopta jophon

Critically Endangered, endemic, and confined to the shrinking rainforest of one corner of the island.

Where: Slow flight along the buffer zone trails and canopy gaps. Best: January to March and July to September.

Green's Gem Rare

Libellago greeni

A damselfly the length of a fingernail, endemic to a handful of rainforest streams.

Where: Rocky stream sections in the buffer zone. Best: January to March and July to September.

Sri Lanka Blue Oakleaf Rare

Kallima philarchus

Electric blue and orange in flight, and a dead leaf complete with midrib and fungal blotches the moment it lands.

Where: Leaf litter and fallen fruit along the buffer zone trails. Best: January to March and July to September.

No free photograph of the Sri Lanka blue oakleaf exists. The image shows the scarce blue oakleaf, Kallima knyvettii, a close relative photographed in southern India.

Sri Lanka Relict Ant Ultra rare Critically Endangered

Aneuretus simoni

The only surviving species of an entire subfamily of ants, and it lives in the leaf litter of one island.

Where: Leaf litter and rotting twigs inside the forest, in undisturbed patches. Best: Year round.

Golden Orb-weaver Common

Nephila pilipes

A giant black-and-yellow spider spinning webs of golden silk strong enough to snare small birds.

Where: Across the buffer zone trails and canopy gaps. Best: August to December for the largest females.

Fringed Ornamental Tarantula Rare

Poecilotheria ornata

A tarantula the size of a dinner plate that lives in tree holes and sometimes shares them with a frog.

Where: Tree cavities along the buffer zone trails, on a night walk. Best: January to March and July to September, night.

Sri Lanka Tree Snail Occasional

Acavus phoenix

A snail the size of a plum, banded like a boiled sweet, that lives its whole life in the canopy.

Where: Trunks and low branches along the buffer zone trails after rain. Best: May to September.

Sri Lanka Tree Crab Very rare

Perbrinckia scansor

A freshwater crab that lives up a tree, in rainwater trapped in a hollow trunk, and only comes down to breed.

Where: Water-filled hollows in large trees in the Kalu and Gin basins. Best: February and March for ground-level females.