Bundala National Park
This is the end point for wintering migratory birds from as far away as Europe and Siberia. Many fly thousands of miles over the Himalayas and down through the toe of India to spend September to mid-April on lagoons, estuaries, mudflats, and mangrove swamps of this 24-square-mile (62- km2) national park on Sri Lanka’s southernmost landing point, 153 miles (246 km) southeast of Colombo. More than 20,000 shorebirds are here then—golden plovers, black-tailed godwits, green sandpipers, spotted redshanks, Caspian terns—149 species, plus thousands of greater flamingos from Rann of Kutch in India and, in the thorny scrub jungle, elephants, deer, and wild buffalo.
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