Wednesday, December 23, 2009

November 2009 – Most successful month for bird watching

FOGSL’s citizen science programme for bird conservation - ‘Sri Lanka Birds’, completed its most successful month by the end of November 2009. A short summary of the results obtained during the month of November is given in this brief report. This analysis is based on the data downloaded on 21st December 2009.

Membership
New members - 15
Total members - 385
FOGSL warmly welcomes new members to the ‘Sri Lanka Birds’ community.

Observations
Total Number of Observations - 2883
Number of Species - 226
Number of Endemic Species - 22
Number of Proposed endemic Species - 7
Number of migrant species - 52

Highest number of observations for a month was recorded during November 2009. Number of species recorded during the month was the highest number recorded too. Maximum number of migrants was also recorded during this month. Brown Noddy and Sooty Tern at Gorapadu, Kalpitiya Sandwitch Tern at Keerimundel, Kalpitiya and Bar-tailed godwits at Gorapadu, Giant’s tank and Mannar were noteworthy observations recorded during the month.

Nesting records
Number of observations - 6
Number of species - 2
Purple-rumped Sunbird and Red-wattled Lapwing were the species observed with nesting activities. Brahminy Kite and Indian Robin were recorded in breeding stages other than nesting.

Mostly recorded species (No: of observations)
Blue-tailed Bee-eater (71)
Red-vented Bulbul (55)
House Crow (55)
Yellow-billed Babbler (53)
Rose-ringed Parakeet (46)

Top five users (No: of observations)
Newton Jayawardane (705)
Nadika Hapuarachchi (568)
Amila Sumanapala (510)
Rahula Perera (450)
Chinthaka Kaluthota (390)

A total of 42 locations were visited during November by ‘Sri Lanka Birds’ members. Highest number of observations was made at Ragama (491) as in many previous months. Members were able to visit wide range of habitats during the month. Visits to the locations in the Northern Province are important since very limited number of locations of the region were previously visited.

Visit the login page of ‘Sri Lanka Birds’ to see current statistics describing the number of field visits, number of observations and bird species, as well as the number of users registered in the system.


FOGSL highly appreciates the contributions of members towards conservation of birds through this initiative.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Annual Wader Studies Workshop at Bundala

Bundala National Park is one of the best places to watch birds, especially the waders and some other waterbirds, in the South. Many of the amateur bird watchers face difficulties in identification of Waders (Shorebirds). Therefore, annual field workshop of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka on the wader studies at Bundala is an important event for its members. A team of 22 FOGSL members headed by Prof. Sarath Kotagama participated in this event from 28th November to 01st December 2009. Due to heavy rains prevailed in the area few days ago, water level at the Bundala lagoon and other surrounding water bodies were high. Hence, numbers of birds on the mudflats of Bundala lagoon were comparatively very low. However, members were able to record a total of 121 species including 21 wader species during the four day period. During the Workshop, members actively participated in bird identification sessions, bird counting exercises and also the data analysis on simple studies. Several seminars were also conducted for the members during the period. Participants: Mr. Janaka Dissanayaka, Mr. Ashoka Jayasekara, Miss. Uraji Karunaratne, Ms. Mallika Peeris, Mr. Adrian Gabriel, Ms. Sujatha Mayadunnage, Mrs. Cheryl Silva, Miss. Ayanthi Samarajeewa, Ms. D.H.M. Wijeratne, Mr. S.D. Pemaratne, Kid. Kalidu Pemaratne, Mr. Rohan Kaththiriarachchi, Mr. Rohantha Samarajeewa, Ms. Sindy de Silva, Mr. Asantha Sirimanna, Mr. Riyad Rissai, Mr. Thilanka S. Abesinha, Mrs. Shamila Perera, Mr. Malaka Rodrigo, Mr. Janaka Perera, Mr. Indrika Pradeepa, Prof. S.W. Kotagama.

Photos and Bird List: Indrika Pradeepa List of Birds observed
Sri Lanka Junglefowl
Indian Peafowl
Lesser Whistling-duck
Garganey
Little Grebe
Painted Stork
Asian Openbill
Black-headed Ibis
Eurasian Spoonbill
Yellow Bittern
Black Bittern
Black-crowned Night-heron
Striated Heron
Indian Pond-heron
Cattle Egret
Grey Heron
Purple Heron
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Spot-billed Pelican
Little Cormorant
Indian Cormorant
Oriental Darter
Black-winged Kite
Brahminy Kite
Crested Serpent-eagle
Shikra
White-breasted Waterhen
Purple Swamphen
Common Moorhen
Common Coot
Eurasian Thick-knee
Great Thick-knee
Black-winged Stilt
Red-wattled Lapwing
Pacific Golden Plover
Grey Plover
Little Ringed Plover
Kentish Plover
Lesser Sand Plover
Pheasant-tailed Jacana
Black-tailed Godwit
Common Redshank
Marsh Sandpiper
Common Greenshank
Wood Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Little Stint
Curlew Sandpiper
Broad-billed Sandpiper
Brown-headed Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Common Tern
Little Tern
Whiskered Tern
Rock Pigeon
Spotted Dove
Emerald Dove
Pompadour Green-pigeon
Green Imperial-pigeon
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Pied Cuckoo
Asian Koel
Blue-faced Malkoha
Sirkeer Malkoha
Greater Coucal
Asian Palm-swift
Crested Treeswift
Indian Roller
Stork-billed Kingfisher
White-throated Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Little Green Bee-eater
Blue-tailed Bee-eater
Eurasian Hoopoe
Brown-headed Barbet
Brown-capped Woodpecker
Yellow-crowned Woodpecker
Indian Pitta
Ashy Woodswallow
Common Iora
Common Woodshrike
Small Minivet
Scarlet Minivet
Brown Shrike
Black-hooded Oriole
White-bellied Drongo
White-browed Fantail
Asian Paradise-flycatcher
House Crow
Jungle Crow
Barn Swallow
Jerdon's Bushlark
Ashy-crowned Sparrow-lark
Ashy Prinia
Plain Prinia
Red-vented Bulbul
White-browed Bulbul
Common Tailorbird
Blyth's Reed-warbler
Clamorous Reed-warbler
Brown-capped Babbler
Tawny-bellied Babbler
Yellow-billed Babbler
Common Myna
Oriental Magpie-robin
Indian Robin
Jerdon's Leafbird
Purple-rumped Sunbird
Purple Sunbird
Long-billed Sunbird
House Sparrow
Streaked Weaver
Black-throated Munia
Scaly-breasted Munia
Yellow Wagtail
Paddyfield Pipit

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

It is DECEMBER again - the Bird Counting Month..!!

Bird Counting Month is an opportunity for you to pay attention to the birds. In ‘December’ Sri Lanka will be having the peak number of birds as it is middle of the migration season, hence the best time to do this exercise.

Participating for the Bird Counting is simple. What you have to do is to make a list of birds that you have been able to identify in a given location and email the records to fogsl@slt.lk or directly feed the data into "Sri Lanka Birds" database (http://www.worldbirds.org/srilanka). The list should include the date, time, location, weather at the time, the habitat that the bird observation is carried out, and the name and contact details of the observer. You can also include the number of each species seen at the location, so that this number can be used roughly to compare the population next year.

If you participated the Bird Counting last year, do the counting in the same area this year too. The list of birds and numbers can be tallied with the last few years. If the conditions of the counting are same, then yourself can have an assesment of the status of birds in that area.

Pass the message.. Get your friends to join too…!!
For more information on 'how to participate', read the announcement on the 'Bird counting month 2008'.