Lecture on migration of birds at BMICH today

A collection of stories of the longdistance migration of birds from our neighborhood by Dr. Sampath Seneviratne will be presented today at 6 p.m. -Jasmine Hall, BMICH, Colombo 7. The WNPS Monthly lecture is open to both members and non-members, Entrance Free

Modern aviation and internet had brought communities closer and made the world a smaller place for us. Yet it is perhaps birds that can lay claim to being the first globalizing influence through their ability to traverse the globe through migration, which is a phenomenon that had forged connections between communities from far-flung lands for centuries.

Dr. Sampath S. Seneviratne is a research scientist specializes in the study of evolution, molecular biogeography, and ornithology. His laboratory – Avian Evolution Node – studies how animals evolve in isolation in an island biogeography framework using both field- and laboratory-based research in a broader genes-to-ecosystems approach.

His research programme spans across oceans, islands and forests through research on montane birds in Sri Lanka and Western Ghats (India), bird migration in the Central Asian Flyway to the seabirds in the North-pacific Arctic. Sampath is a birder, a naturalist, a conservationist and a public educator.

He is the current President of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) and the newly formed Sri Lanka Ecological Association (SLEA). He is a Senior Lecturer attached to the Department of Zoology and Environment Sciences, University of Colombo.