In February 2025 we spent almost three weeks in Sri Lanka, with most of this time being devoted to an extensive birding tour around the southern part of the island. The tour was organised by Ornithvacations and was a slightly extended version of their Endemics Finder tour, which aims to locate all of the 35 endemic bird species found uniquely on the island. Our excellent guide for the tour was Tharanga Herath, ably supported by our driver Biancara.
We flew to Colombo with Sri Lanka Airlines on 4 February and then spent three nights in the city to get over the jetlag and also to enjoy having some time in the capital of this beautiful country. The 12-day birding tour was very rewarding bird-wise, but also quite tiring with literally dawn till dusk birding, so following the tour we stayed in Galle for a relaxing three days before returning to Colombo and flying home on 23 February.
During the trip we visited a number of towns, well-known birding sites and national parks so we have split this report into seven sections that can be viewed via the links below.
This was a very successful and enjoyable three-week trip to Sri Lanka. Ornithvations were an excellent birding company and, thanks to Tharanga and Biancara, all went smoothly as we travelled around the top birding sites of the country. We were also glad that we topped and tailed the birding with days in Colombo and Galle, which gave us a chance to relax around the often hectic birding schedule. We would thoroughly recommend Sri Lanka as an birding destination and Ornithvacations as a world-class tour company.