'Brown-headed Barbet' - Megalaima zeylanica, Home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

The noisiest bird in the jungles of Sri Lanka. The older generation of bird-watchers could never get a bird-song recorded without the cry of this bird creeping into the audio-recording.

Ceylon Paradise Fly-catcher - Tersiphone paradisi ceylonensis, various poses, home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

'Oriental Magpie Robin'- Copsychus saularis - bathing, Home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Deciding on a bath.

'Water must be cold'.

Deciding.

Stepped in at last.

Splashing the water with the wings.

'Time to leave the water'.

Visitors to our home garden, March 2014, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

The 'Drongo' which imitates the mewing of a cat and many other noises.

The 'Oriental Magpie Robin' which has a variety of songs.

The 'House Sparrow' making a come-back after disappearing for a few years.

The 'Common Tailor-bird' flitting from place to place, always on the move.

Ceylon Paradise Fly-catcher - Terpsiphone paradisi ceylonensis, home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Note the beautiful camouflage provided by the dried Banana leaf.

Views of a 'Tailor-bird' - Orthotomus sutorius, home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

'Black-hooded Oriole' - Oriolus xanthornus, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

On the garden wall of our home in Avissawella.

'Brown-headed Barbet' - Megalaima zeylanica, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

I spotted this bird making a meal of a Dragon-fly perched on the bough of a 'Veralu' tree.

'Red-backed Wood-pecker' - Dinopium benghalense psarodes, home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

'House Sparrows' - Passer domesticus indicus, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Looking for worms.

Bathing.

Nest of a 'Red-vented Bulbul', time-lapse, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Click on web-link below to see a 'time-lapse' video of the activities in the nest over two afternoons. They took flight the next day.

http://youtu.be/54dN8oje-1g

'Greater Coucal' - Centropus sinensis, Home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

The couple foraging in tandem.

Molluscs which have come out at night are caught by these birds early in the morning.

'Common Tailor-bird' - Orthotomus sutorius, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Pictures taken in our home garden around a 'Tulasi' plant..

'Red-vented Bulbul's' - Pycnonotus cafer's nest, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

The commonest species in our home gardens has from time immemorial built its nests on the walls of houses. House-holders often keep an empty pot with a hole at the botton hanging on a nail on the outer wall their houses. The nests are often built there by these birds generation after generation. Each new season the birds throw out the old nest and build a new one. The biggest predators who eat the young are the 'Coucal' and the 'Rat-snake'. The parents stand guard all the time taking turns at 'watch-keeping'. The slightest noise makes the chick to open their mouths wide and stretch their necks upwards to receive food from their parents. about 4 feet above the ground where the house-dogs patrolled these nests have been built in a safe place.