24 : Asian Magpie Robin

Asian Magpie Robin - Copsychus saularis

This is my last post for May and I seem to have got into a decent habit with this. It is established as part of my daily routine (with the odd catch up some days). Its amazing how many photographs you can find tucked away - I'd actually forgotten I did some birding in Iceland for example - I will still need to make an "adventure dash" soon and the funds are being allocated for the camera purchase. Onwards and upwards.

I know we are in a bit of Sri Lankan phase at the moment but if you are following day to day (some people are amzingly) I hope its giving an indication of what a wonderful place it is for birds. Now that the troubles are over I think many more people will start going to the island. All I can say is get away from the Western coast South of Columbo and head for those hills. We did a big loop from Columbo to Kandy (in the very centre) then down in a South East direction through Nuwara to Bundarewella (spelling) - the tea country - then on down to Yala in the very South East then back around the South coast to Galle and Bentota and back to Columbo for a night before flying back home to Dubai. We took 12 days for what looks like a small loop on a map - the roads are single lane mostly, pot-holed and the average speed was really 30-50 km all the way round. Allow plenty of time and build in extra stops. It is an island that needs 3 trips of 2 weeks if you are going to really see everything it has to offer in terms of heritage and spend a fair amount of time in the national parks.

Today an Asian Magpie Robin snapped on the manicured lawn of the Nuwara Elliya country club. They even had snap dragons in the garden and a half timbered frontage to the hotel. A place lost in time in the high tea country.I have feeling that my better half snapped this while we were sat waiting for the restaurant to open.

I mentioned when talking about Robins how it was a common name attributed to many species around the world by western travellers. A bit of colonial bird naming. Its no exception with this species which is actually a flycatcher rather than a thrush or chat (the same family as our European Robin). A specimen skin of this asian bird was sent back from a physician gentleman collector in India to an ornithologist in England and it was described to science in the mid nineteenth century. I expect it was known to the locals for thousands of years and had a perfectly goood name ! The european common name attributed to it was Magpie Robin - it was coloured like a Magpie (black and white) and looked about the same size as a robin and foraged on the ground. This before clever DNA sampling would have shown that it was closer to a Pied Flycatcher !

These birds were an integral part of the dawn chorus when we were travelling around - much like my own robins from home. I spent a fair amount of time looking for the owner of this "voice" when I started our Sri Lanka trip - I was expecting to see a brightly coloured bird sat in a mango tree. Eventually I worked out that it was an "robin" sat on the tv arial of our lodge. Not a disapointment though. A very smart bird.

Asian Magpie Robin - Copsychus saularis
Nuwara Elliya Country Club, Sri Lanka
13 April 2011