Abstract

Birds, undoubtedly, are the most fascinating forms of terrestrial life on Earth for the majority of humans. Even the prehistoric man, apparently, was amused by the birds, as is evidenced by the cave paintings of Cro-Magnon men in Altamira in Spain and Lascaux in France (Gooders, 1990). Birds are also depicted in the rock paintings of Australian aborigines (Baran & Martin, 2005) and Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. Avifauna of Sri Lanka is spectacularly diverse, with no less than 450 species on record as at present (including vagrants). Of these, some 237 species are breeding residents and the rest are migrants (species that come to Sri Lanka in search of mild climes during the northern winter). Keywords: Birds, Sri Lanka, Avifuana.