Annotated checklist of vagrant Woodpeckers (Family: Picidae) 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 Picidae (Woodpeckers) in Sri Lanka.

      Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla)

First time recorded in Sri Lanka by A.J. Vincent on 7^th March 1993 from Sigiriya (Hoffmann, T. W., 1994). However CBC had decided to remove it from Sri Lanka list as having been accepted on misleading data (Warakagoda, D., 1999). But FOGSL members captured a bird on 5^th April 2002 at Yala during the bird ringing program of 2002 carried out from 3^rd to 8^th April (Kaluthota C.D. and Kotagama S.W., 2006). Again Uditha hettige reported a bird at Ruhuna National Park in 2003 (Warakagoda, D., 2004). Another sighting is given in the report of CBC for 2008-2011 near Yala Block 1 (Warakagoda D. & Sirivardana U., 2011) Dulan Ranga Vidanapathirana and M.D. Gehan Rajeev reported a sighting from Kudawa, near Sinharaja on 3rd February 2014 and confirmed with photographs taken on 26th February 2014.2011). (http://www.ceylonbirdclub.org/the_ceylon_bird_club_news.php). 

References:

Hoffmann, T. W., 1994. Ceylon Bird Club Notes, 1993. Loris, 20(3), 107-109.

Kaluthota C.D. and Kotagama S.W., 2006 Banding shorebirds: The sri lankan experience Siyoth Vol 1 :16-21

Warakagoda, D., 1999. Ceylon Bird Club Notes,1998. Loris, 22(2), 33-34.

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)