Face To Face With Greater Flamingos In Mannar Island, Sri Lanka

My First flamingo encounter, Mannar 2013

I had this fantasy for a long time to take some good pictures of flamingos because I had always been fascinated with pictures taken in Africa and by some of my fellow Sri Lankan photographers. Back in January 2013, I had my first stroke of luck with these elusive birds at the Mannar slattern. However the sighting was under extremely harsh lighting and at a very long distance, so I had to be content with a few record shots. However last year around March, I had a better encounter with these amazing birds at the Bundala Lagoon in Bundala National Park, Sri Lanka. The sighting was good but approaching them was nearly impossible, as they were far from the lagoon. As Bundala was a national park the rules did not permit me to approach them by foot or to get closer. Again, I had to settle for some long-range shots.

Flamingos in Bundala, 2013

Bundala wasn’t my first encounter with the flamingos though, back in January 2013 I had my first luck with the elusive birds right at the Mannar slattern, the sighting was extremely harsh lighting and on quite a bad distance and I end up settling for having record shots for myself.

Until December 2013, I had to settle my fantasies with the few pictures I had taken back in Bundala. During this migratory season, I made up my mind to visit Mannar as much as I could to create the most number of opportunities to play around with my camera. I started my visits very early this season and the first visit was back in October 2013. Although I didn’t have much luck during the beginning of the season it was a good start to identifying the best locations in the coming months.

This shot was taken on the Mannar saltern while they kept on feeding and moving around.

My friend Danushka received some firsthand information from some reliable sources that flamingos have just arrived for the season. First spotted on 4th December and we made a quick plan to set off for a flamingos mission immediately on 6th December 2013 late at night.

Danushka, Harsha, and Lasantha arrived at my home around midnight and we set off from Katunayaka around 1 am, we are quite used to night driving like this but as always it’s a daunting task. The good thing about the group is everyone can drive and we took turns on the way.  After some tired driving, while having a few breaks on the way at 24-hour coffee shops, we reached Murunkan around 7 am via the Tantirimale shortcut to Medawachchiya – Mannar highway.

We got distracted by the macro life near the bund of the giant tank in Murunkan and we ended up spending about a good 3 hours taking pictures of abundant butterflies and moths resulting in reaching Mannar saltern around 10:30 am.

Greater flamingos, feeding on Mannar saltern

As per the information received, we noticed the flamingos as soon as we entered the road near the saltern, amazed and excited about the opportunity we parked the vehicle on the road and tried to approach them to get a closer look and some pictures. Based on the location they were in, we had the opportunity to go around them while hiding in the small bunds of the saltern, this enabled us to get much closer without disturbing the birds.

Although the light was not as great as it was sunny and harsh, we kept on shooting as we didn’t know what will happen in the evening and tomorrow. After taking some incredibly close shots we called off the session and went to our favorite accommodation in Mannar “The Four Tees Rest Inn” owner Lawrence welcomed us and food was ready on the table to have lunch. After lunch, we had a well-deserved nap till around 4:00 pm and we set off to the saltern yet again to try our luck.

The outstretched neck of a flamingo, Mannar 2013

Hopes were high in the evening as we knew flamingoes might be hanging around, as expected they were in the same place we first found and kept on feeding. The rest of my friends went to the far end hidden to the saltern bund and I kept waiting on the other side for them. Until about half an hour nothing had happened and I was just sitting low and looking at them.  All of a sudden to my amazement they started walking towards me and kept on feeding and I was happily taking pictures yet again.

Greater flamingos flying away

At around 5 pm all of a sudden the flamingos started to fly one after another and I was still in the same spot opposite my friends and on a good-looking angle to take pictures of the flying flamingos.  Many of them flew off towards the Mannar causeway and some noticed settled down on a far end of the saltern.  I got up from where I was hiding stretched myself for a well-deserved break and reviewed the pictures I had taken.  The rest of my friends had gone to the far end where the flamingos had landed and it took me a while to notice that. Slowly I went towards that side and it was a good 700 meters away from where I was.

Greater flamingos playing in the evening sunlight

By the time I reached that spot, the rest of the guys managed to get to the ideal side where the light came from and I was on the opposite side of the light, they were nicely positioned themself and happily taking pictures. I was a bit confused about what to do at that moment and decided not to go towards that side as I might disturb my friends and the flamingos that were pretty close to them. I kept low again and waited to look at them and to my amazement, they came quite close yet again on a different-looking light and I started taking pictures the rest of the evening until the light faded away.  After having a successful day we called it a day and went back to four tees rest around 6:45 pm for a much-deserved bath as we were crawling among the saltern bunds.

As this trip was only meant for flamingos soon after we got up in the morning around 5 am we went back to Saltern in the darkness and positioned ourselves behind the bunds. Only a few birds were seen at that time but the light was pretty low to do any photography.

Playing in the evening sunlight

After waiting for more than 45 minutes, all of a sudden from every direction more flamingos started to land in front of me. I was extremely focused and when I looked around to see where my friends were they were all over the saltern and not to be seen near me.  I kept on looking at them and took pictures as I liked and they kept on coming towards me. I have to say that this moment was the closest encounter out of the sightings had during two sessions the day before.

Greater flamingos flying into the saltern

Greater flamingos flying into the saltern

Greater flamingos at a touching distance

Suddenly Lasantha came close to the place I was hiding and he also started to click, and after some time he suggested that we should go to the other side of the bund as there was some fence-like setup made out of coconut leaves. We both crossed over to the other side and the height of that fence is barely enough to hide our bodies only when we sleep on the ground.  As the flamingoes were quite close to us we kept on sleeping on the ground and managed to put the camera lenses out from the fence.  We waited and waited and the flamingos started to move closer and closer to us.  At one point they were right in front of us and I had to zoom out to get them on the frame, I could easily hear them shout at each other, and the distance between us was close to 19 meters as I saw from the camera EXIF details.

Flamingos walking towards my hide

This was a dream come true, bigger birds like this so close and almost face to face looking at us. They ignored us and kept on feeding and at one point I think they came close to 15 meters and we had to stop taking pictures as we might end up disturbing them.   At one point I thought they might come right to us and started pecking on the face as they were that much closer to us.

Slowly they kept moving here and there and whenever I had the opportunity kept on shooting with some terrible body pain as I was lying down on the ground hiding behind the coconut leaves fence.  After about 45 minutes of the close encounter, they started to move away from us and the light also started to get harsh as the time was close to 9:30 am, Body pain also started to become unbearable and finally, we moved out of the location to comfort ourselves.

A closer view of the birds

A closer view of the birds

Danushka, Lasantha & Harsha trying to get close to the birds

After thinking about this amazing experience and having a final look at the friendly flamingos we happily went back to four tees rest to have breakfast and to have a much-deserved bath.  We said goodbye to Mannar and went to Willpattu National Park on the way back home to check on some Leopards.

Yet again I visited Mannar on 15th February 2014 and this time I ended up meeting my friends in a different location I liked a lot.  I was with Ifham and we were searching for spot-billed ducks on the Poonaryn

Flamingos at Vankalei

road and ended up with very little luck turned back and we went towards Vankalei and noticed a big flock of birds on the left side of the road behind the army camp nearby.  Because of the golden light falling into the water, we immediately got down and went close to have a look and I was stoned to see the ever-amazing flamingos right in the golden light. Quickly positioned ourselves on the edge of the water hiding behind the bushes and waited to hope they would come close to us.  Meanwhile, I kept on shooting as they were right in the golden light that fell into the water.

My self & Ifham hiding near water

I closed my eyes for a moment and suddenly I heard a big noise, it took me a few seconds to realize what was happening, for some reason all of the flamingos (nearly about 1000) started flying off and noise generated from their flapping wings was just an amazing experience, disappointed but took some flying shots of them and sadly have to turn back to four tees rest on that beautiful morning. After checking the pictures I have taken I was over the moon as this time the pictures came out was different to what I have taken back on December 7th encounter.

Flamingos flying away from vankalei

Location of the vankalei

Classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (IUCN 3.1) The Greater  Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) migrate to Sri Lanka from the Rann of Kutch India / Pakistan where they breed and then migrate south during the winter.

Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh located in the western tip of Gujarat (primarily the Kutch district), India. It is divided into two main parts; Great Rann of Kutch and Little Rann of Kutch. It is located in the Thar Desert bio-geographic area in the Indian state of Gujarat. The area is also spread across the Sindh province in Pakistan.

Location map

• Length: 120 – 145 cm
• Wingspan: 140 – 165 cm
• Weight2.1 – 4.1 kg
• Greater flamingos may live for over 40 years in the wild

The most widespread flamingo species, the greater flamingo occurs across Africa, southern Europe, the Middle East, and into southern and southwestern Asia.

Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus)

This flamingo is a highly social species, nesting in large, dense colonies, often numbering as many as 20,000 pairs or up to 200,000 pairs.

Flamingos inhabit on shallow water bodies, including saline lagoons, salt pans, estuaries, and large saline or alkaline lakes. Breeding occurs on sandbanks, mudflats, open beaches, or sandy or rocky islands.

References: arkive.org, IUCN