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

Brown-headed Barbet - Megalaima zeylanica, Honiton Place, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

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

'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.

'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.

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

The 'Barbet' relishes the unripe berries of the black pepper tree as you see in this picture.

Pictures taken by Dr.Charaka Wickremasinghe.

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

Picture taken in our home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka. These birds are attracted by the bight yellow colors of the 'papaw' and banana fruits. When the fruits are placed in the feed box in our garden, they eye the food from a tree top close by and make a loud cry repeated many times. Then they quietly swoop down and consume the fruit in absolute silence. Their cry is the most frequently heard cry in the jungle. This interferes with recordings of 'bird-crys' of other birds.