How I Became A Birder

When I was very very young - not even in preschool - my father used to buy hundreds of picture books and my mother would read them to me. They were of all kinds, and I loved them all. Once among them was a pamphlet for identifying waders. They weren’t particularly colourful or pretty, but they were fascinating creatures with their long bills and long legs and long necks. I remember my mother showing me the weirdest of them all, the curlew with its impossibly long bill, intoning Cuuuuuur-loooowwww (none of us knew how to pronounce it at the time).

I went through a lot of phases growing up. I loved dinosaurs, so I wanted to be a paleontologist. I used to catch grasshoppers and watch them eat grass, so I wanted to be an entomologist. Watching BBC’s The Life of Birds sparked interest in ornithology, but my knowledge of local birds wasn’t enough to sustain it into a phase. After reading about marine life and multiple beachcombing trips, I wanted to be a marine biologist.

Getting a couple of birdwatching field guides changed my life - especially the pocket-sized but amazing A Photographic Guide to Birds of Sri Lanka by Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne. Now I knew that the weird brown birds visiting our bird table were not “sparrow-babblers”, but White-browed Bulbuls. The black-and-white sparrows were really Great Tits. There was a name for every bird I glimpsed, and a face for every call I heard. And there were so many more out there, just waiting to be found.

A few of the birding guides that have been by my side over the years

White-browed Bulbul, Bulugahagoda

We lived in Bulugahagoda, a village in the Western Province, and our neighbourhood was surrounded by patches of woodland, like the especially thick and lush jungle right next door. For my sisters and myself, it was a goldmine, as we kept our eyes sharp and our ears pricked for new sights and sounds, and it always paid off.

The woods around our old home

Young White-bellied Sea Eagle feeding on a deer - Yala, 2009

After the civil war ended in 2009, we began our tradition of going on wildlife trips every year. In August that year, we visited Yala and Bundala National Parks in the deep South for the very first time, and the thrill of birdwatching sunk its talons in like an eagle and carried me into what I’m sure will be a lifetime of wonder.

Since then, we’ve gone on countless trips, and I’ve acquired about eight to ten identification guides and the habits of birdwatching wherever I can, and recording my sightings as much as possible, which means I can keep track of every species I see. It’s awkward sometimes - my friends probably see me as eccentric when I glue myself to the vehicle seat during roadtrips, looking outside and making lists of birds in sight, or when I tiptoe into corners to photograph them when possible. As a biology student for A Levels, my project was a hand-illustrated guide to the birds I observed in my school, which was in the bustling heart of Colombo.

Since then, things have changed up a bit. Our family moved to Colombo in order to cut travelling time, and instead of a jungle, concrete walls surround our home now. I try to savour a few glimpses of city birds from time to time.

Rose-ringed Parakeets (Psittacula krameri) in Colombo

Also, instead of going on to study zoology in university like I dreamed about, I was pushed into doing medicine by typical South Asian societal demands. It’s not ideal, but it’s acceptable, and it’s led me to meet like-minded people who are always happy to share the ever present adventure of birding and nature-watching.

Sri Lanka White-eye - Hanthana hiking trail, 2018

Birding, for me, is not just a hobby, but also a way of life; a way to see and listen past what others perceive, and a way to appreciate wonders of nature that go unnoticed too often.

Maybe you’ll find it too, wherever you live in the world.

- Sadini Upeka