Sri Lanka Frogmouth and Great Indian Hornbill, Thattekad

We were up early and out by 6:15am this morning and drove out to an area near Urulanthanni campsite, and then had a short walk uphill to an open rocky area which gave us wide open views of the surrounding forest. 

The place was heaving with birds, most of which were new to me, but two species stood supreme, clear joint winners of the bird of the day award, Sri Lanka Frogmouth and Great Indian Hornbill. 

I'm assuming that nobody comes on this blog to look at the great photos, because they're as rare as hens teeth, so with that in mind I'll continue with this post and perhaps even take the odd liberty.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth we found roosting in a tree close to a river. They were much smaller than the frogmouths I have seen previously in Australia, tawny and Papuan, but on the other hand they were much more nicely marked. As ever with frogmouths, they didn't really do much except look bizarre.

The same can't be said of the great Indian hornbill! Vinod had previously told me that they were quite rare in the area, but at the spot where we parked the car we heard one calling distantly. I jokingly said perhaps it will fly over later, not really expecting that it would. 

We'd been on the rocky outcrop for about two hours, when Vinod cried out "Great Indian Hornbill flying over!" and there it was. A magnificent bird with spectacular markings and huge, with a wingspan of 152cm, slightly larger than a black kite. Of course my camera was in my bag so I didn't bother trying to photograph it, I just contented myself with the wonderful sight of what will probably be the bird of the holiday.

Not my photo sadly.

Malabar flame-backed woodpecker.

Jungle babbler.

Nilgiri flowerpecker.

Red-whiskered bulbul.

White-cheeked barbet.

Golden-fronted leafbird.

Malabar giant squirrel.

Malabar parakeet.

Malabar trogan, on any other day this would probably have been the highlight. Other species seen today included heart-spotted woodpecker, blue-throated flycatcher, orange-headed thrush, bar-winged flycatcher-shrike, small minivet, Malabar starling, vernal hanging parrot, Asian fairy-bluebird, flame-throated bulbul, dollar bird, Malabar parakeet, Nilgiri flowerpecker, Golden-fronted leafbird, Malabar woodshrike, rusty-tailed flycatcher, banded bay cuckoo, brown-caped woodpecker, Indian golden oriole, chestnut-headed bee-eater and little spiderhunter.

People actually live in the shack in the middle of the photo.