Nature clicks by Pradeep (2025)

27/01/2025

A flock of white Rumped Munias roosting together 💚💚. If you look closely you'll see all 5 ☺️

26/01/2025

The Predator and the Prey
If you look closely at the left side of the image, you'll spot an Oleander hawk moth caterpillar 🐛 hiding beneath a leaf (see the second picture for a closer view). Meanwhile, the Orange minivet 🐦 the predator is on a keen search.

Whenever Orange minivets visit our garden, they carefully inspect every leaf in search of caterpillars. After they left, the caterpillar was nowhere to be found, perhaps it fell victim to the hunt, or maybe, thanks to its impressive defenses like large eye spots, it managed to survive another day.

However that's the way of nature 💚

14/01/2025

Pied thrush ගෝමර තිරාසිකයා
(Geokichla wardii)
Another winter migrant which breeds in the central Himalayan regions and winters in the forests of South India and Sri Lanka.
They can be easily recognised from other Thrush species. The males are black in colour with a prominent long white supercilium line (from the beak above the eye towards the neck). The feathers are black with white tips. Underparts are white with black spots on either side of the belly (flank). The one in the pictures is a male. The females and young males have brown markings instead of black making them more camouflage. The beak and the legs are yellow.
They are considered to be omnivorous. Forage on the ground as other thrush species looking for small insects. Their colour pattern blends them perfectly with the leaf litter. They are also feeding on small berries. At the time we observed, this guy was feeding on some berries on a tree.
They migrate from their breeding grounds by October and stay until March to return back. They are believed to inhabit mid hills and above region during this stay. Mostly recorded at the Victoria park, Nuwaraeliya, including us.

12/01/2025

Velvet-fronted nuthatch
විල්ලුද නළල් යටිකුරිත්තා
(Sitta frontalis)
A small yet an interesting bird from the Sittidae or the Nuthatch family. Both the Sinhala and English common names explain the appearance and its weird habits.
The upperparts are violet blue while the beak is crimson in colour. The adult males have a black strip above the eye towards the nape like the one in the image. A black patch is present on the forehead. The under parts are beige. The toes are stronger and with curved sharp claws for its special trick.
They usually climb down along the tree barks vertically facing downwards. Strong feet with the claws are helpful for that. That behaviour is added into the sinhala vernacular name as යටිකුරිත්තා. They feed on small insects, spiders and other small animals found in the barks. They use their strong bills to glean these creatures from small crevices in the bark. Commonly found in mixed foraging groups.
In Sri Lanka they are a resident breeding species. Globally, they are distributed from South Asia (Nepal, India, Sri Lanka) towards East (Southern China, Indonesia).

Spotted at the Victoria park, Nuwaraeliya.

06/01/2025

Yellow eared bulbul ලංකා පීතකන් කොන්ඩයා
(Pycnonotus penicillatus)
A beautiful endemic bird from the Pycnonotidae family , the family of the bulbuls. It is commonly found in the highlands including Horton plains.
The upperparts are olive in colour while the lower side is yellow. The ear tufts are yellow from which they get their name. A yellow patch is present below the eyes. White tufts of hair present in front of the eyes. The Rs. 5000.00 note contains a picture of this bird.
They feed on fruits and insects.
Spotted at the Victoria park, Nuwaraeliya.

26/12/2024

Grey headed canary - flycatcher
අළුහිස් කහ මැසිමාරා
(Culicipaca ceylonensis)

A small bird from the fairy flycatcher family. Easily distinguishable with the peak shaped grey head and grey neck with yellowish belly and the breast. The upper parts are olive green in colour. The fine tipped bill is a characteristic of the canary fly catchers (Genus Culicicapa).
They are breeding residents and found in mid to high hills. Globally they show a wide distribution from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka towards Southern China ( 5 sub species).
They feed on insects and are seen frequently with mixed forage flocks.
It was first described by William Swainson in 1820, according to the avibase website, the type specimen was collected from Sri Lanka, so that it was given the species name ceylonensis.

Spotted at Victoria park, Nuwaraeliya

25/12/2024

Brown Shrike
බොර සබරිත්තා
(Lanius cristatus)

A beautiful bird from the Laniidae family, the family of the Shrikes, is a migrant species that comes from Central and Eastern Asian regions (two different races) during the winter. They are known to visit the same wintering areas annually. Upon arrival, they establish a territory for hunting small insects and resting. The beak is hooked (upper part), and there is a black, mask-like mark across the eyes and it has a short neck. These are some characteristic traits shared by many Shrikes. They will stay until April and return to their breeding places. Immature ones will get their mature plumage during their stay. I suspect the one in the images is immature.

Spotted at Victoria Park, Nuwara Eliya, one of their favourite wintering spots. Special thanks to Lahiru Sandaruwan Rathnayaka aiya 🤎.

(The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher," as some Shrikes of this genus, like the Loggerhead Shrike, hang their prey on thorns for storage 🥹)

05/12/2024

Common leopard (Phalanta phalantha) සුලබ කොටිතියා
A beautiful butterfly from the Nymphalidae family. As I've observed they prefer the flowers of this Mikania micrantha plant, an invasive creeper. The one in the pictures was swiftly moving around to chase away other butterflies including Common Crows in the area 🤭.

24/11/2024

Loten's Sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius) - female
A cute little bird from the Nectariniidae family.

The males and females are quite different in appearance (sexually dimorphic). Adult males are glossy purple while the females are with yellow-grey upper parts and yellowish lower parts including the breast.

The female of the Purple rumped Sunbird is also much similar to this one. The upper side is quite similar but with light greyish feathers. The throat of the Purple-rumped ones female is white while it is yellow in Loten's female. (Also the beak is longer and more curved in Loten's one as I've seen). The second image can be used to compare the two.

10/11/2024

Plain prinia
සරල ප්‍රීනියා
(𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘢)
A tiny little bird from the Cisticolidae family, the family of warblers. Even though it's smaller in size, the song and the calls are quite sharp and heard from a distance.
The plumage is grey- brown on the back and white on the underside. They have white supercilium (a stripe that runs from the base of the beak, above the eye and running towards somewhat behind the head). The tail is longer and wags it similar to a common tailor bird.
Common in paddy fields as the name implies. Quite active and swiftly moves (flits) among tall grass and seen commonly on wires.
Their nests are hidden within the grass. A cup shape nest woven from the grass or paddy is used to lay eggs. They are insectivorous. The song consists of repeated clik-clik-clik notes.

09/11/2024

Scaly-breasted munia/ ළය කායුරු වී කුරුල්ලා
(Lonchura punctulata)

A beautiful little bird from the Estrildidae family which includes munias and other seed eating birds. They are commonly seen in grasslands and paddyfields where their favourite seed types are abundant. The adults are dark chestnut-brown above, white below, with a fine dark scaly pattern on the belly from which they get their name.
They are seen in small groups. I often see them together with the white rumped munia. They are small and agile and their beaks are well adapted for the seed eating. The beak is short, triangular and conical in shape. This enables them to pluck small seeds and crush them.
It is quite pleasing to watch them hanging on the Panicum plants and feeding on them.

Spotted near our home garden

03/11/2024

Pale-billed flowerpe**er ලාතුඩු පිළිලිච්චා
(Dicaeum erythrorhynchos)

Pale-billed flower pe**er is considered to be the smallest bird species found in Sri Lanka. It's a common breeding resident and distributed in India and Sei Lanka. Prefers nectar and small berries as food. But their special preference for the fruits of Loranthus sp. (පිළිල) has given rise to their Sinhala name පිළිලිච්චා. They help in propagating the stick seeds of Loranthus plants with their p**p 🤭. Here we have many trees covered with Loranthus plants, maybe the ones to be blamed are these tiny guys 🙈.
Recently the ones in our garden seem to be much interested in the fruits of this Peanut butter fruit plant. They make a fast "thik-thik" call during the flight and a series of trills as their song, without them it is difficult to spot these due to their tiny size.

02/11/2024

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
(Cyornis tickelliae) 💙

31/10/2024

හැම අවුරුද්දකම මේ කාලෙට අපිට අමුත්තන් එනවා. ඒ උතුරු අර්ධ ගෝලයේ ශීත ඍතුව ආරම්භ වන මේ කාලයේ, ඉන් මිදීමට උණුසුම් කාලගුණ ඇති ප්‍රදේශ සොයා සංක්‍රමණය වන පක්ෂීන්.
ඔවුන් අතරින් ළය දුඹුරු මැසිමාරා ( Brown breasted flycatcher) සෑම වසරකම නොකඩවාම පැමිණෙන්නෙක්.
ඉන්දියාවේ ඊශාන දිග ප්‍රදේශවල ද දකුණු හා මධ්‍යම චීනය හා තායිලන්තය තෙක්ද පුළුල් ව්‍යාප්තියක් (breeding population) පෙන්වන මොවුන් ශීත සමය ආරම්භයත් (සැප්තැම්බර් අග) සමග ඉන්දියාවේ දකුණු ප්‍රදේශයන්ට හා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට සංක්‍රමණය වන බවට සැලකේ.
හිස හා පිට ප්‍රදේශයන් අළු දුඹුරු මිශ්‍ර පැහැයක් ගන්නා අතර ළය ලා දුඹුරු පැහැයක් ගනියි. ඇස වටා සුදු පැහැති කවාකාර සළකුණක් ද ඇත. හොටයේ උඩ කොටස හා යට කොටසේ මුල දුඹුරු පැහැයක් ගන්නා අතර ඉතිරි ප්‍රදේශ කහ පැහැයක් ගනියි. පාද කහ/ රෝස පැහැයක් ගන්නා අතර මේ ලක්ෂණයන් මේ හා සමාන දුඹුරු මැසිමාරාවා ( Asian brown flycatcher) ගෙන් වෙන් කර හඳුනා ගැනීමට උපකාරී වේ.
මා හට නිරීක්ෂණය වූ ආකාරයට මොවුන් පොළොව මට්ටමේ සිට මඳ උසකින් වසා සිට බිම සිටින කෘමීන් ආදී සතුන් ගොදුරු කරගෙන නැවතත් එම වසා සිටින ස්ථානයටම පැමිණෙයි.
තවත් විශේෂී කරුණක් වන්නේ මේ විශේෂයේ විද්‍යාත්මක නාමයයි. ඉංග්‍රීසි යටත් විජිත යුගයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ රැඳී සිටි Edgar Layard නැමැති ඉංග්‍රීසි ජාතික නිලධාරියා පක්ෂීන් අධ්‍යනය (ornithology )කෙරෙහි මහත් වූ ඇල්මක් දැක්වූ අයෙකි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ගත කළ අවුරුදු දහය තුළ පක්ෂීන් ඉතා විශාල සංඛ්‍යාවක් අපගේ පක්ෂි ලැයිස්තුවට ඇතුලත් කිරීමට ඔහු සමත් විය. මෙම ලය දුඹුරු මැසිමාරා නම් කිරීමට මුල් වූ නිදර්ශකය සොයාගෙන ඇත්තේ 1854 දී පේදුරුතුඩුව ප්‍රදේශයෙනි. මේ නිදර්ශකය ඔහුට සපයා දී ඇත්තේ ඔහුට නිරතුරුවම පක්ෂි නිදර්ශක සපයා දෙන "මුත්තු" නම් සේවකයෙකු විසිනි. එම හිතැති සේවකයාගේ සේවයට අගය කිරීමක් ලෙස විද්‍යාත්මක නාමය Muscicapa muttui ලෙස යොදා තිබේ.
මොවුන් මාර්තු-අප්‍රේල් වනතෙක් රැඳී සිටින අතර ඉන්පසු නැවතත් නිජබිම් කරා පියාසැරිය ආරම්භ කරයි. මේ දිනවල ඔබගේ ගෙවත්තටත් බොහෝ සංචාරක පක්ෂීන් පැමිණ ඇති, විමසිලිමත් වුවහොත් ඔබටත් මේ සංචාරකයන් දැකගැනීමට හැකිවේවි.

20/10/2024

Chrysilla lauta and Chrysilla volupe are species of jumping spiders belonging to the family Salticidae. The males exhibit closely similar striking metallic coloration with bright iridescent hues. There are slight differences in the patterns as you can see in the comparison below, the changes are mostly noticeable in the abdomen region. Overall the C. lauta has more vibrant and iridescent coloration specially in the abdomen and the legs. The C. lauta has a slender body compared to C. volupe.

13/10/2024

Chrysilla volupe
Spiders usually remind us of scary, eight legged creatures. But they are quite interesting and a diverse group of animals. The Chrysilla Volupe is a spider from the Salticidae family with striking metallic colours.

They are distributed in the South Asian region including Sri Lanka and India. The species was first described by Ferdinand Karsch, a German arachnologist in 1879 using a specimen collected from Sri Lanka. First it was placed in the genus Attus, later it was placed in the Genus Phintella and finally in 2016 in the Genus Chrysilla. The females were described recently in 2018 by a group of scientists from India. (Link to the paper is at the end of the post).

The vibrant colors of Chrysilla volupe serve multiple purposes. Primarily, the metallic hues such as the iridescent blue, purple, and golden scales on the males are used for sexual selection. In many jumping spider species(Ex: peacock spider), males display such vivid colors to attract mates.

The spiders from the Salticidae family or simply the jumping spiders are well known for their intelligence. Unlike web building spiders, jumping spiders are hunters, usually ambush their prey. Their sharp vision ( they have a binocular vision for accuracy) together with their agile bodies makes them superior hunters.

(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325540506_First_description_of_the_female_of_Chrysilla_volupe_Karsch_1879_Araneae_Salticidae_Chrysillini_from_India_with_notes_on_the_species'_distribution_and_life_history)

Spotted at the home garden and captured using Nikon d3500 and reverse mounted kit lens.

24/09/2024

The Common Sailor (Neptis hylas) and the Chestnut Streaked Sailor (Neptis jumbah) butterflies have similar wing shapes and flight styles, but they are distinct in their coloration and patterns. Here's a side by side comparison.

Nature clicks by Pradeep