Nature clicks by Pradeep (2025)

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.

22/09/2024

Yamfly, the angel in orange 🧡
(𝘓𝘰𝘹𝘶𝘳𝘢 𝘢𝘵𝘺𝘮𝘯𝘶𝘴) රඹවන් සේලයා

21/09/2024

Common Sailor (𝘕𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘴) සුලබ ලිහිසැදියා

#🦋

14/09/2024

Brown wood-owl
බොර වන බකමූණා
(Strix leptogrammica)

The brown wood owl is a medium-to-large owl species found primarily in South and Southeast Asia. In Sri Lanka, it is found in wooded regions at all altitudes. Although a forest bird, it has adapted to well-wooded areas with human habitation.

It has a distinctive appearance with a rich, dark brown plumage, often streaked with paler markings on the underparts. Its face is framed with a brownish-orange facial disk and has prominent dark eye rings. The distinct buff facial disks, lack of ear tufts and chestnut barring make it easier to separate it from the two other large owls, the Forest Eagle-owl and Brown Fish-owl.

The call is a repeated, rather deep hu-hu, hoo with a sinister quality. They are primarily nocturnal and feed on small mammals, birds, and insects. They use their keen vision and hearing to capture their prey. Their flight is silent and their camouflaged look makes them almost invisible.

Spotted at a nearby home garden.

07/09/2024

White four-ring
Ypthima ceylonica
සිතිරි මුදුවා

A beautiful butterfly from the Nymphalidae family. The upper and lower sides are with prominent eye spots from which it has received the Sinhala and English common names.
Their flight is slow and weak, dwell among the small grasses and feed on small herbaceous flowers. Prefer sunny spots. They bask in the morning with both wings fully When threatened, quickly open the wings to display the large eye spots on the upper side of the forewing. This is to distract any predators.
Distributed throughout the country but low in numbers in the Northern parts and in higher elevations.
Globally, they are found in Sri Lanka and India.
Larval food plants are Axonopus compressus, Cyrtococcum trigonum, grasses from Family: Poaceae.

23/08/2024

Jezebel
පිළිල-රිසියා
(Delias eucharis)

19/08/2024

Clipper
(Parthenos sylvia)
කැළෑ ලිහිසැදියා

A magnificent butterfly frok the nymphalidae family. Can be considered as a medium size butterfly. The upper wing in patterned in black and bluish grey. But this colour seems to be like iredescent. The large white patches are also present at the lower side, which gives it a distinct look at flight (like circlular windows if you see one one the flight).
Usually fly slowly but can fly faster. If it perches, keep the wings at open position. Feed on flowers and fruits and the males involve in mud puddling.
Seen in wet zone to intermediate zone. The only larval food plant is වල් රසකිද(Zanonia indica).
Information: Common butterflies of Sri Lanka by Himesh Dilruwan Jayasinghe.
Spotted at the home garden and captured using Nikon D3500 with a 18-55 mm kit lens.

11/08/2024

Indian white eye පෙරදිග සිතැසියා
(Zosterops palpebrosus)

Nature clicks by Pradeep