Showing posts with label Phasianidae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phasianidae. Show all posts

Saturday, July 1, 2023

උස්වටුවා/අළු උස්සවටුවා (Francolinus pondicerianus)

තරමක් සුලභ ලෙස දිවයිනේ වයඹ, උතුර සහ ඊසාන දිග වෙරළ තීරයේ සහ ඒ ආසන්නව රට තුලට වන්නට පිහිටි  වියලි විවෘත ලඳු කැලෑ සහ තැනින් තැන විසිරුණ පඳුරු වලින් සමන්විත තෘණ භූමි වල පමණක් හමුවන දේශීය පක්ෂියෙකි. එසේම එම ප්‍රදේශ වල මුහුදේ පිහිටි ඇතැම් දූපත් වලද දැකිය හැක. ජෝඩු වශයෙන් හෝ කුඩා රංචු වශයෙන් දිවිගෙවන උස් වටුවා පොළව හාරමින් තෘණ වර්ග සහ වෙනත් එවන් වල් පැලෑටි වල බීජ, ධාන්‍ය වර්ග මෙන්ම කුහුඹුවන්, වේයන්, තණකොලපෙත්තන්, වැනි කෘමි සතුන්ද ආහාරයට ගනී. වැඩි වශයෙන් ඇවිදිමින් සහ දුවමින් එහෙ මෙහෙ යන මෙම පක්ෂියා හදිස්සි තර්ජනයකදී එයින් මිදීමට විනා  බොහෝවිට පියාඹීම සිදු නොකරයි. මැයි සිට අගෝස්තු මාස අතර කාලයේ කුඩා පඳුරක් හෝ තණ පඳුරක් යට පොළව සූරා දමා ඒ වටා තණකොල මුල් අතුරා තනා ගන්නා කූඩුවක බිත්තර හතරේ සිට අට දක්වා ප්‍රමාණයක් දමා අභිජනනයේ යෙදේ.
 
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Monday, June 12, 2023

Grey Francolin/Indian Grey Partridge/උස්වටුවා/අළු උස්සවටුවා (Francolinus pondicerianus)

Rather common breeding resident confined to the dry open scrublands and pastures with scattered bushes of the coastal and near by lowland areas from north western to north and north eastern part of the country, together with the adjacent islands. It lives as pairs or as small coveys and feeds on grass and weed-seeds, grains, ants, termites, grasshoppers and such other insects by scratching the ground. Grey  Francolin is a great runner and a walker, seldom flying except to escape from an enemy when suddenly startled. The breeding season lasts from May to August. The nest is a scrape in the ground under small bush or tussock, lined with grass roots, where it lays four to eight eggs. 

සිංහලෙන් කියවන්න >> 

Monday, October 20, 2014

Vagrant Quails (Family: Phasianidae) recorded in Sri Lanka

    Birds that appear outside their normal range are known as vagrants. This post summarizes up to date published sight records of vagrants of the family Phasianidae (Quails) in Sri Lanka.

 1) Rain Quail [Black-breasted Quail] (Coturnix coromandelica) 
Then director of the Colombo museum Haly had obtained the first specimen of a Rain Quil, a male in January 1883 and again two females in July of the same year. All those were shot at Colombo (Nevill, H., 1887). Hue Nevill also mention of a specimen of a female said to be shot at Dumbara, near Kandy by a local taxidermist which he purchased from him in 1875. But he viewed it with suspicion (Nevill, H., 1887). Wait speaking probably of these three specimens noted that Rain quail has been recorded from the environs of Colombo and three specimens are in museum taken near that town (Wait W.E., 1933: 307Phillips mentioned of a large quail seen at Rugan tank of eastern province on 10th November 1947 probably of a bird of this species and according to him there are several sightings from Ruhuna national park too (Phillips W.W.A., 1978: 21).  Early March 1962 another pair was positively identified by T.E. Tunnard on a road on Vellai oya estate, Hatton and another one was reported by D.V.A Tirimanna from a garden at Kandana on the 20th November 1976 (Phillips W.W.A, 1978: 21 & Hoffmann, T. W. 1977). CBC Notes reported several sightings at Udawalawe National Park in December 2001 (Siriwardana, U., 2002), November 2002 [six birds] (Siriwardana, U., 2003), January 2003 and again two birds in November 2003 (Warakagoda, D., 2004). Sighting of two birds at Udawalawe NP is given in the Report of CBC for the 2008-2011 period (Warakagoda D. & Sirivardana U., 2011)

Unconfirmed vagrants:
Species for which there are only one or two sight records exist categorized here as unconfirmed vagrants. Problematic records without sufficient details are also included.


     2) Common Quail(Coturnix coturnix) 
Only reference available for occurrence of Common Quail in Sri Lanka is Bligh’s record from ‘Yala district’ in January 1879 of a pair of large quails which were flushed from beneath his feet, and flew away strongly, uttering a chirping note similar to the Common quail.(Legge V. 1880: 992)

References:

Hoffmann, T. W., 1977. Notes from the Ceylon Bird Club 1976. Loris, 14(3), 154-156.
Legge V., 1880. A History of the birds of Ceylon  1983 second edition.
Nevill, H. (1887). Ornithological notes (Ceylon). Taprobanian, 2(5), 131-132.
Phillips W.W.A., 1978 Annotated checklist of the Birds of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1978 revised edition.
Siriwardana, U., 2003. Report from the Ceylon Bird Club for 2002. Loris, 23(3&4), 36-39.
Siriwardana, U., 2002. Report from the Ceylon Bird Club for 2001. Loris, 23(1&2), 36-40
Wait W.E., 1931. Manual of the Birds of Ceylon. 2nd edition. Colombo Museum.
Warakagoda, D., 2004. Report from the Ceylon Bird Club for 2003 Loris, 23(5&6), 37-41
Warakagoda D. & Sirivardana U., 2011. Report from the Ceylon Bird Club for 2008-2011, Loris 26 (1&2)

Saturday, May 25, 2013

මොණරා [Monara]/Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus)


Indian Peafowl is a common breeding resident of dry lowlands and some areas in the intermediate zone. It inhabits mainly open country, chena lands and scrub lands avoiding dense forests.  Its food consists of grains, leaves, grasshoppers, termites, and also small reptiles.Its usual feeding times are in the early morning and hour or so before sunset.  It roosts on trees during the night. Indian peafowl usually lives as small groups and spends their time mostly on ground walking great distances in search of food.  It flies mostly to cross an obstacle like rivers or to escape from sudden danger.  The breeding season is from December to May and male attains its long train during the mating season.  The peahen lays 3 to 5 eggs in a slight hollow on ground well hidden in dense shrubbery.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

වලිකුකුලා[Wali-Kukula]/Sri Lanka Junglefowl (Gallus lafayetii)



Fairly common endemic bird found in forests and dense scrubs from low lands to higher hills. Junglefowl keeps in pairs or small groups mainly inhabiting on ground and flying up to a tree when threatened. It roosts high in trees during night solitarily or in small groups. It’s food mainly consist of grain,  berries, leaves and buds as well as small insects such as grasshoppers, termites etc. Junglefowl 's  main breeding season is from December to April and probably again from August to September. The nest is a scrape in ground beneath a tree, beside a dead log or on a pile of vegetation.