I made a visit to Yala being the first for 2026 with my 2 regular photography friends and their spouses in the first week of February. The highlight was that we were ale to see the rare migrant : the European bee- eater .
Jungle foul
Malabar pied hornbill
Juvenile black crowned night heron
common redshank
common sandpiper
male rosy starling
female knob-billed duck
glossy ibis
baya weaver
we were able to see this young leopard by following the alarm call ,
wooly necked stork
a matured sambar
male knob billed duck
with the young
a nesting of a white bellied sea eagle
An uncommon migrant in yala --western -reef heron
Jungle crows
A young tusker
serpent eagle
brown shrike
yellow crowned woodpecker
chestnut headed bee-eater
a pair of green bee eaters
This was the icing on the cake. We were looking for these European bee eaters for sometime in the locations frequented in the recent past and though one appeared from no where and landed on a distant tree, when we went near it disappeared and took us some time to again locate 2 of them.
coppersmith barbet
somewhat a rare sight of Eurasian hoopoe sand bathing
pied kingfisher
Caspian tern
