Red-faced Malkoha closeup in Sinharaja, Sri Lanka

Here is the mother of all bird spottings in Sri Lanka. This bird is much sought after by birders. It is confined in its distribution to the Sinharaja forest. Furthermore, it really is a forest bird that is very active in the high canopy, and therefore not often seen, and even more difficult to photograph. As a result, only a few dozen photos are online of this species across the web.

This was a case where ignorance is bliss. We had never heard of this bird, despite having a birds book of the country. It just fell into our lap. We were on a path in Sinharaja when out of the blue the ranger went nuts and kept pulling me in all kind of directions to capture this bird. I was carrying the 80-400mm and was struggling for about 20 minutes to get glimpses of this active bird, still not understanding the big deal. Out of 70 or so shots, less than 10 were somewhat usable, and I'm sharing them all. Not to show off, but to attempt to put more of this bird online.