Of all the identified trees and lianas, more than 60 per cent are endemic. Although big mammals are difficult to spot, amphibians and reptiles grace you with their presence oh-so-often. A bewildered skink scurrying away to safety, a green pit viper waiting motionlessly for an unsuspecting prey, a wrinkled frog guarding its eggs in a stream, a whistling lizard making its way up a tree, a torrent toad looking bored at the world. And then there are birds. Very many of them! In all shapes, colours and sizes. Racket tailed drongo creating a racket, or, orange billed babbler babbling away. The rare endemic ones like the Sri Lanka blue magpie; the green billed coucal, red faced malkoha, ashy headed laughing thrush, and the white faced starling make their presence felt to the devoted and perseverant. The birds also forage in mixed flocks here—sometimes up to 48 species together!