Rare Lankan bird in danger of extinction

by K. G. H. Munidasa

The Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush or "Arrenga", a species endemic to the island is categorised as a threatened bird in the World List of Threatened Birds compiled by Birdlife International, United Kingdom.

This thrush was first described from the banks of Lemastota Oya 4,200 feet in the Haputale District in 1872 and named Mylophoneus blighi in the Turdidae Family i.e. Robins, Chats and Thrushes (Annotated Checklist Revised Edition 1978) classified as a species peculiar to Sri Lanka, resident in the Hill Zone in the Central and Uva Provinces at elevations of about 3,000 feet. It was named as Arrenga or Blighs Whistling Thrush The popular Sinhala name given was "Sivuruhan Wal-avichchiya".

Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush

W.E. Wait (1931) referring to Vincent Legge and other authorities has earlier observed the Ceylon Arrenga as "one of our rarest residents and confined to the hill country at elevations of over 2,000 ft. Later G. M. Henry (Guide 1955) described the Arrenga as a mountain bird which does not occur below about 3,000 feet and most likely to meet with between the 4,000 and 6,000 feet contours." Strictly a forest-dweller, it loves densely wooded ferny ravines and gorges, especially those that have a rapid torrent running through them, for it is seldom seen far from a stream. In such places in the evening, male flies about restlessly, every now and then uttering its shrill, sibilant whistle Sree....ree, which is much more often heard than its author seen."

The main breeding season is said to be in March and April, but a second brood is often reared in August-September.

The nest is a large mass of green moss, mixed with twigs and dead leaves, lined with fine rootlets, and generally placed on a ledge or in the crevice of a rock beside a torrent or waterfall.

The Ceylon Bird Club has over the years has recorded in its monthly notes Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya (7,000 ft.), Maskeliya and the Knuckles Range as the best places to visit to look for this elusive bird.

Though I have been a active member of the Club since the early 1950s and had joined in many a birding expedition along with such stalwarts in the sphere like Ted Norris, Mc Leod Cameron.

I have had no opportunity at all to personally observe this most secretive bird in the wilds, nor have I come across detailed accounts in the club notes other than mere sight-records, over the ensuing years.

However, in April 1967, Roy Mc Leod Cameron then secretary of CBC put on record a sight he had at Loolcandura Estate in Deltota, Hewaheta as follos "I have had a good view of a female Arrenga or Whistling Thrush this month. It settled on a rock in a stream in a deep jungle-clad ravine. It was nearly midday and the sun shone on it, showing up various shades of reddish-brown - a heavy-looking bird.

It did not stay long but fanned out its tail to one side and then flew into thick cover. There are several streams on the estate, where I can be pretty certain of hearing these birds at almost any time of the day, but I very rarely see them, never a female before this.

I think that my birds must be abnormally shy as I have often sat still and watched for them late into the dusk but have never had the luck to see one actually `hopping about' (Henry's Guide p.34) for more than a few moments."