Wilpattu national park is one of the biggest national parks in Sri Lanka, the name Wilpattu comes from the word meaning “Land of the lakes “. As the name says it the uniqueness of Wilpattu is existence of “Villus” the natural sand rimmed water basins that are filled with rainwater.
Wilpattu national park is one of the biggest national parks in Sri Lanka, the name Wilpattu comes from the word meaning “Land of the lakes “. As the name says it the uniqueness of Wilpattu is existence of “Villus” the natural sand rimmed water basins that are filled with rainwater.
Wilpattu National Park is world renowned for its dense Leopard population. If you are planning visit to Wilpattu National Park to see Leopards, the best time to visit Wilpattu National Park will be May to early September, which is the dry season. The drought clears some of the bush making it easier to spot wildlife. The heavy rain is from October through December. The park is still open, but you may want to be flexible with specific days for your safari and wait for it to clear. Although the rain is usually over by January, you can still expect thick brush obscuring your view.
Below mentioned is how lucky you will be able to spot wildlife on specific time period visiting Wilpattu National Park. January — Thick foliage and bushes hard to spot wildlife, February to April — there is a possibility of rain but the foliage is bit thin so there is some opportunity to spot wildlife, May to September- is the drought time to the park and most of the wildlife will near waterholes in the park which allows to easy spotting them. October to December there is heavy rains and the foliage is so thick and harder to spot wildlife. So we can get an idea that best time to visit Wilpattu National Park to witness wildlife is from May to September.
Wilpattu National Park is the largest national park in Sri Lanka with an area of 130,000 hectare. It is also the oldest national park of Sri Lanka. The uniqueness of the park is that entire park is dotted with large sand rimmed natural lakes known as the ‘Villus”. This villus collects rainwater and serves as a waterhole in drought time for animals. Wilpattu National Park is popular for its large density of Leopards. The Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is a Leopard subspecies native to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Leopard has been listed as vulnerable on the IUCN.
The Leopards of Wilpattu National Park are seen near the waterholes where they hide silently among bushes for the next prey. The Leopards of Wilpattu are more active and prefer hunting at night, but are also somewhat active during dawn, dusk, and daytime hours. The Leopards of Wilpattu National Park rarely haul their kills into trees, which is likely due to the lack of intrigued competition and the relative abundance of prey.
The leopards of Wilpattu National Park hunts by silently stalking its prey, until it is within striking distance, when it unleashes a burst of speed to quickly pursue and pounce on its victim. The Leopards of Wilpattu National Park usually dispatched the prey with a single bite to the throat.Sri Lankan Axis Deer make up the majority of its diet in the dry zone. If you are visiting Wilpattu National Park to see Leopards the waterholes provides you an excellent place to photograph or video the elusive Leopards.
Wilpattu National Park is the largest National Park of Sri Lanka. It is located 180 km from Colombo & its bordering the north western coast of the country. It has a very rich historical past. According to the Mahavamsa Prince Vijaya who came from east India accidentally came to Sri Lanka at Thambapanni near Mannar, It’s now known as Kudiramale Point. He married a local tribe princess known as Kuweni and lived in a palace in Kali Villu where remains still can be seen.
Packed with wildlife and waiting to be explored Wilpattu has varying habitats for birds both resident and migrant. Wilpattu is home for an abundance of endemic birdlife such as Jungle Fowl, Painted Stork, Owl, Terns, Gulls, Eagles, Herons and the winter migrant birds
In the list of Birds of Wilpattu National Park there are endemic birds such as Ceylon Jungle Fowl, Black capped Bul Bul & Ceylon Woodshrike.
Among the birds of Wilpattu National Park we have carnivore birds such as Crested Hawk Eagle, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Brown Fish Owl, Forest Eagle Owl, Black Kite and Crested Serpent Eagle. Other than that there is Indian Peafowl (Peacock) which brings vibrancy to the birds of Wilpattu National Park. There are birds like Great Thick Knee, White Rumped Shama, Spotted Dove, Chestnut headed Bee eater, Parakeet, Common Kingfisher and Stroke billed Kingfisher.
There are aquatic birds among the birds of Wilpattu National Park such as Grey Heron, Lesser Whittling Duck, Great Egret, Woolly-necked Stork and Spot-billed Pelican.
There are other birds that you can spot in Wilpattu National Park such as Barred Buttonquail, Lesser Adjutant, Little Grebe, Gray Hornbill, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Black Drongo, Pintail snipe, Garganey, Pacific Golden Plover, Indian Silverbill, Indian Pitta, Indian Cuckoo, Drongo Cuckoo,Orange Headed Thrush and Indian Nightjar.
Wilpattu is indeed a one of best spots to spot birds and you can do bird watching or photograph them while they are in there natural habitat. Below mentioned is the full list of Birds of Wilpattu National Park.
Birds that you can Observed in Wilpattu National Park
Little Grebe | Spotted-billed Pelican | Little Cormorant | Indian Shag | Great Cormorant | Indian Daner | Little Egret | Large Egret | Median Egret | Grey Heron | Purple Heron | Cattle Egret | Indian Pond Heron | Little Green Heron | Night Heron | Malay Bittern | Yellow Bittern | Chestnut Bittern | Black Bittern | Painted Stork | Openbill | White-necked Stork | Lesser Adjutant | Glossy Ibis | WhiteIbis | Spoonbill| Lesser Whistling Teal | Comb Duck | Cotton Teal | Shoveller | Pintail | Garganey | Common Teal | Crested Honey Buzzard | Black winged Kite | Black Kite 37. Brahminy Kite | White-bellied Sea Eagle | Grey headed Fishing Eagle | Crested Serpent Eagle | Pallid Harrier | Shikra | Besra Sparrowhawk | Black Eagle | Himalayan Buzzard | Booted Eagle | Rufous bellied Hawk-Eagle | Crested Hawk Eagle | Mountain Hawk-Eagle | Osprey | Common Kestrel | Shaheen Falcon | Indian Grey Panridge | Ceylon Junglefowl | Indian Peafowl | Bustard Quail | Banded Crake | Blue breasted Banded Rail | White-breasted Waterhen | Ruddy Crake | Purple Coot Porphyrio | Common Moorhen | Common Coot | Pheasant-tailed Jacana | Painted Snipe | Asiatic Golden Plover | Little Ringed Plover | Kentish Plover | Lesser Sand Plover | Yellow.wattled Lapwin | Red-wattled Lapwing | Pintail Snipe Ga | Black-tailed Godwit | Common Redshank | Common Greenshank | Marsh Sandpiper | Green Sandpiper | Wood Sandpiper | Common Sandpiper | Little Stint | Temminck's Stint | Curlew Sandpiper | Ruff | Black winged Stilt | Indian Stone Curlew | Great Stone Plover | Large Pratincole | Brown-headed Gull | Lesser Crested Tern | Large Crested Tern | Gull-billed Tern | Caspian Tern | Little Tern | Whiskered Tem | White.winged Black Tern | Spotted Dove | Collared Dove | Emerald Dove | Orange breasted Green Pigeon | Pompadour Green Pigeon | GreenImperialPigeon | Ceylon Lorikeet | Rose-ringed Parakeet | Common Coucal | Blue.faced Malkoha | Red-winged Crested Cuckoo | Pied Crested Cuckoo | Indian Koel | Indian Plaintive Cuckoo | Drongo.Cuckoo | Indian Cuckoo | Common Cuckoo | Barn Owl | Collared Scops Owl | Forest Eagle-Owl | Brown Fish Owl | Brown Wood Owl | Brown Hawk-Owl | Ceylon Frogmouth | Long tailed Nightjar | Indian Nightjar | Palm Swift | House Swift | Crested Tree Swift | Ceylon Trogon | Common Kingfisher | Indian Three-toed Kingfisher | Stork-billed Kingfisher | White-breasted Kingfisher | Pied Kingfisher | Little Green Bee-eater | Blue-tailed Bee-eater | Chestnut-headed Bee-eater | Indian Roller | Hoopoe | Ceylon Grey | Rufous Woodpecker | Golden-backed Woodpecker | Red-backed Woodpecker | Crimson-backed Woodpecker | Black-backed Yellow Woodpecker | Indian Pitta | Jerdon's Bushlark | Indian Skylark | Common Swallow | Ceylon Swallow 152. Forest Wagtail | White Wagtail | Yellow Wagtail | Grey Wagtail | Indian Pipit | Blyth's Pipit | Large Cuckoo-Shrike | Black-headed Cuckoo | Small Minivet | Orange Minivet | Pied Flycatcher | Ceylon Wood Shrike | Indian Paradise Flycatcher | Black-naped Monarch | White-brewed Fantail | Black-capped Bulbul | Red vented Bulbul | White-browed Bulbul | Common lora | Jerdon's Chloropsis | Gold-fronted Chloropsis | Brown Shrike Lamus | Philippine Shrike| Rufous-rumped Shrike | Orange headed Ground Thrush | Brown Flycatcher | Layard's Flycatcher| Blue-throated Flycatcher| Tickell's Blue Flycatcher | Indian Blue Chat | Magpie-Robin | White rumped Shama | Black Robin | Brown capped Babbler| White-throated Babbler | Black fronted Babbler | Yellow-eyed Babbler | Southern Common Babbler| Streaked Fantail Warbler | White-brewed Prinia | Ashy Prinia | Large Prinia | Common Tailorbird | Blyth's Reed Warbler | Clamorous Reed Warbler | Green Leaf Warbler| Large billed Leaf Warbler | Velvet fronted Nuthatch | Thick-billed Flowerpecker | Tickell's Flowerpecker | Purple rumped Sunbird | Purple Sunbird | Loten's Sunbird | Small White-eye | White-throated Munia| White-rumped Munia | Spotted Munia | Black-headed Munia | House Sparrow | Striated Weaver Baya Weaver | Brahminy Myna | Rosy Starling | Common Myna | Indian Golden Oriole | Black-headed Oriole | Black Orengo | Grey Orengo | White bellied Orongo | Racket tailed Orengo | Ashy Swallow-Shrike | Jungle Crow | House Crow
Wilpattu is the largest National Park in Sri Lanka which lies on the northwest coast. It lies 30 km west to ancient city of Anuradhapura. It spans the border between the North West and North Central Provinces. It has an area of approximately 131,500 hectares and has been declared as a sanctuary in 1905 and has been upgraded to a National Park on 25th February 1983.
Wilpattu is situated in dry zone of Sri Lanka and is made up with dry lowland forest and many villus which work as sand rimmed basins that collect rainwater.Wilpattu is an excellent place to spot wildlife in dry and monsoon season. Apart from Wilpattu’s rugged beauty there is a very high chance to spot Leopards in Wilpattu.Other than that you can spot elephants, sloth bears, water buffaloes and spotted deer.
The Wilpattu National Park opens at 6.15 am daily and closes at 6.15 pm in the evening. Within this Wilpattu National Park open time frame of 12 hours you can either enjoy a full day safari or a half day safari. You can enjoy the wildlife and scenery of Wilpattu in your safari jeep in the winding long gravel roads of Wilpattu.
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