Sri Lanka's last major stretch of lowland rainforest, and one of its most rewarding wild experiences.
Sinharaja is Sri Lanka's last major stretch of primary lowland rainforest — a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a Biosphere Reserve, and one of the most extraordinary concentrations of endemic species anywhere in South Asia. For travelers with a real interest in wildlife, birdlife and wild places, it is a highlight of any trip.
The forest is thick, wet and beautifully alive. Over 60% of its trees, 50% of its butterflies and more than 20 of its bird species are endemic to Sri Lanka. Mixed-species bird feeding flocks — one of the great ornithological phenomena of the tropics — form spontaneously through the day, and a specialist guide can sometimes conjure ten or fifteen endemics in a single morning: red-faced malkoha, Sri Lanka blue magpie, green-billed coucal, ashy-headed laughingthrush.
Stay for at least two nights, ideally at a small eco-lodge on the edge of the reserve. Walks are guided, taken slowly, and often produce as many amphibians, reptiles and butterflies as birds. A separate night walk reveals a different rainforest — glowing fungi, endemic frogs, tarantulas, the occasional slender loris. Come prepared for humidity, leeches (leech socks help) and rain; the weather here has moods.
Sinharaja is not a wildlife park in the safari sense — there are no jeeps and no marquee mammals. It is quieter, denser and deeper than that, and its rewards belong to travelers who slow down and look properly. Combined with an Udawalawe safari, it makes for one of the finest wildlife pairings in the country.
