A lovely visitor at Pondside

Back in 2004, a visiting friend from Britain (a former professor at the English Department of the Chinese University), also a birder, spotted 29 varieties of birds at Pondside. The kingfishers are colorful, but the loveliest is the Asian Paradise Flycatcher, known in colloquial Sinhala as the "sudu redi hora" (the thief of white cloth). It's rather small but what makes it so attractive is the tail consisting of long, white feathers. The tail makes it easy to spot, too, because it stands out against the background greenery.


Well, the "thief" has returned to Pondside, and I see him flying low, flitting from tree to tree, snatching grasshoppers and butterflies on the way. 


BTW, the photo is from the Internet. My small camera does not have a zoom lens to photograph birds.