Crimson-fronted Barbet

Most Sri Lankan endemic birds seem to be elusive and rather uncommon. But depending on where you live in the island, it’s possible to encounter some even in the comfort of your own garden — sometimes even in cities, if you know just where to look.

I studied for 8-9 years at a popular government-run girls’ school situated in a busy part of Colombo (close to where I live now). During that time, my school went through a stunning “glow-up” and grew to resemble a lovely garden, hosting several large trees.

Here, while staring out of a classroom window towards a row of teak trees as an eight-grader, I noticed a few small, bullet-shaped birds flying between the treetops following an undulating course. I watched one of them perching on a treetop and calling out a soft popopopopop pop pop pop, and realised it was a Crimson-fronted Barbet (Psilopogon rubricapillus, also known as the Sri Lanka Small Barbet).

Since then, I’ve been able to see it in a variety of rural and suburban areas, including the woodlands of Bulugahagoda, near my grandmother’s house in Nagoda, and, most memorably, at a nesting hole by Thalangama Lake.

A small green bird with a red, blue and yellow patterned head, the Crimson-fronted Barbet is very distinctive in appearance, but prefers to stay up in the treetops where it is well camouflaged. Its call could be heard in forests and gardens with or surrounded by tall broadleaf trees throughout the island but more commonly in the wet zone.