Sinharaja is home to one of the most studied bird spectacles in the tropics: the mixed-species feeding flock. Research here since 1981 has recorded flocks of 35 to 50 birds from a dozen or more species moving through the forest together, and occasionally more than a hundred at once. The crested drongo calls the flock together in the morning and stands sentry against hawks; orange-billed babblers set the direction; Sri Lanka blue magpies and red-faced malkohas follow. This walk starts at first light to meet the wave as it forms. Your naturalist may also know the daytime roost of the Serendib scops owl – first seen by Deepal Warakagoda in 2001, the first new bird species described from Sri Lanka in more than a century.