A week in Sri Lanka part 2

This post is for photos of the birds of prey and the 'aerial' species.

This and the pic below show the local subspecies of Peregrine, also known as 'Shaheen'. There were a pair of these around Sigiriya, a great big rock that used to house an ancient palace.

A Crested Serpent-Eagle. These were quite common in both lowlands and uplands, very distinctive both in flight and perched.

This is a Black Eagle, quite a rarity so we were lucky to get even these rubbish views.

 Little Swift, quite a common bird and distinctive with its House Martin-like white rump.

Indian Swiftlet. This was the default swift, present at most of the sites we visited including in towns. A small, blunt-ended, murky brown swift.

A trio of Ceylon Swallows. They look like a red-bellied version of Red-rumped Swallow, and in fact have only recently been split as a separate species, endemic to Sri Lanka.

The only owl we saw was this one, a Brown Fish Owl by marshland.

Brahminy Kite, a really beautiful medium-sized bird of prey which was common in the lowland, marshy areas in particular.

I also saw White-bellied Sea Eagle, Grey-headed Fish Eagle and Shikra.