Birds ‹‹ Go Back

This is a very common species found throughout the country. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia. These birds have been introduced and feral populations have been established in many countries including Southern California in United States of America, Hawaii, Mauritius and New Zealand. Four subspecies have been recognized: S. c. chinensis is found from Myanmar to Central and Eastern China, S. c. hainana in Hainan of South-eastern China, S. c. suratensis in Pakistan, Nepal and India, S. c. ceylonensis in Sri Lanka (differs from suratensis only due to its smaller size) and S. c. tigrina is found from Northern India through Indochina to the Philippines and Sunda Islands.

The conservation status of the species under reference is regarded as Least Concerned (National Red List 2012).
This species is protected under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance as amended by Act No. 22 of 2009.

This is a species that has steadily increased in numbers during the last two decades and extended its range to the wet zone such as Colombo and its suburbs where it has now become very common. I have seen this species from the coast to the highest hills and it is extremely common in the dry lowlands. It is a species that is found in forests as well as in the cities.

This species was not found around our home garden located in Colombo 08 about 10 years ago. In 2005 I observed one bird for the first time and since then they have become one of the four species to visit the feeding table regularly in our garden. As at the time of writing this article (i.e. June 2014), about 9 birds visit the feeding table regularly to feed on a diet of raw red rice and Bagiri’.

This is a very common species found throughout Wilpattu National Park.