Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush (Myophonus blighi) torrent ecology: high-altitude ravines above 1,800m?
What micro-habitat requirements along torrential mountain streams sustain the endangered Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush in the cloud forest ravines of Horton Plains?
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3 Answers from travellers
The Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush (Myophonus blighi / Asoka Pitta) is one of the island's most endangered and elusive point-endemic montane birds, restricted strictly to high cloud forests above 1,800 meters elevation (Horton Plains and Hakgala). It inhabits dark, hyper-dense, shaded ravines flanked by fast-flowing torrential streams and tumbling waterfalls. Active almost exclusively during deep twilight at dawn and dusk, it forages along spray-drenched rocks for freshwater crabs, aquatic insects, and small frogs. Its call—an intensely shrill, piercing, metallic whistle—penetrates the roar of rushing mountain waterfalls.
Adult males feature dark blackish-slate plumage with brilliant cobalt-blue shoulder patches; females display a rich, cryptic dark rufous-brown coloration.
They build cup-shaped nests of damp moss and rootlets wedged tightly into sheer rock crevices directly behind cascading waterfall spray.
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