'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.

'Greater Coucal' - Centropus sinensis, Piliyandala, Sri Lanka.

I took these pictures in the back-yard of a house. The bird was foraging the food thrown away. The white object in the foreground is a sweet-meat called 'Aasmi' which the bird seems to relish. This bird raids birds nest and eats up the fledglins before they fly away. It also eats up the snails in the garden..