in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

The Taxonomy and Conservation Status of Birds in Sri LankaDevaka K Weerakoon 1 and Kithsiri Gunawardena 21Department of Zoology, University of Colombo, Colombo 323E, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8IntroductionThe early formal Sri Lankan literature does not carry detailed descriptions on birds other thancasual references. Since the 14 th century birds have been extensively featured in Sinhalesepoetry Sandesha Kavya. Detailed documentation of the Sri Lankan avifauna began in the 16 thcentury with the arrival of Europeans such as Ribeiro, Baldaeus, Queyroz and Knox. However,the first formal account of a Sri Lankan species, Sri Lanka Lorikeet, was given by George Edwards(1743) in his book Natural History of Uncommon Birds. The systematic study of the avifauna ofSri Lanka began in the mid 18 th century with major contributions from naturalists such as Loten,Joinville, Templeton, Layard, Kelaart and Holdsworth. Then came the monumental four volumepublication by Capt. Vincent Legge, A History of the Birds of Ceylon, which remains the mostcomprehensive account on the birds of Sri Lanka to date. Since then the knowledge on SriLankan avifauna has been updated periodically by many ornithologists such as Murray, Wait,Baker, Ripley, Whistler, Henry, Phillips, Kotagama, Rasmussen, Anderton and WarakagodaSri Lanka supports a rich avifauna that stands at 453 species at present. This include 240species of birds that are known to breed in Sri Lanka, of which 33 are accepted by someornithologists as endemic species while some ornithologists consider only 27 species asendemic and the remaining 6 are considered as proposed endemics. Further, 21 species thatare listed as breeding residents, also have migrant populations which also include migrants ofdifferent races of the species that occur in the country. The remaining 213 species are migrantsof which 72 species are encountered rarely and therefore considered as vagrants. It should benoted that only 240 resident birds have been evaluated in this Red List.TaxonomyThe taxonomy of Asian birds has been subject to many changes over the last two decades,consequent to increased research efforts and new methodologies which were adopted in aviantaxonomy. This resulted in several changes in the scientific nomenclature of Birds of Sri Lanka.Kotagama et. al. (2006) recognized sixty four families representing the bird species presentin Sri Lanka based on Sibley & Monroe (1990). Since then, twenty new families have beenadded, due to elevation of subfamilies or tribes to full family status (Tribes Haematopodini,Recurvirostrini, Stercorariini, Artamini, Rhipidurini, Dicrurini, Monarchini, Dicaeini wereupgraded to family level while tribe Oriolini has been split and upgraded to two families,Oriolidae and Campephagidae which also include members of the tribe Vangini. Further,subfamilies Dromadinae, Hydrobatinae, Aegithininae, Turdinae, Passerinae, Motacillinae,Ploceinae, Estrildinae and Emberizinae are upgraded to family level. Subfamily Garrulacinaeand tribe Timaliini are placed in the family Timaliidae). Members of five families have been“lumped” with other existing families (Dendrocygnidae, Megalaimidae, Centropodidae andBatrachostomidae now placed in Anatidae, Ramphastidae, Cuculidae and Podargidae114