Ceylon Bird Club,Hoffmann’s interest in avifauna and services in this regard

(Excerpted from the authorized biography of Thilo W. Hoffmann by Douglas. B. Ranasinghe)

Over the years, Dr T.S.U. de Zylva has perhaps been Sri Lanka’s most successful photographer of wildlife, with a special emphasis on birds. Writing the foreword to his book Birds of Lanka in 1984, Thilo Hoffmann quotes G. M. Henry to say of himself:

“My interest in birds is primarily aesthetic; their beauty of form, colour, texture and pattern of plumage; their flight, song, behaviour and elusiveness appeal to me far more than … attempts to achieve … an acceptable scheme of classification.”

There he also describes how his closer involvement with the avifauna of the island began:

“… my wife and I started bird watching in Sri Lanka nearly 40 years ago … I remember how important it was for us to have a copy of The Book of Indian Birds by Salim Ali with an illustration for each species; only later did we graduate to Henry’s Guide.”

Initially the interest was much more on her part than his, but this gradually changed.

The Ceylon Bird Club

In the 1960s Thilo joined the Ceylon Bird Club (CBC). As he remembers, it was E. B. Wikramanayake who introduced him to it. Later he would record what W.W.A. Phillips told him about its beginnings.It would appear that the Bird Club was the ‘brain-child’ of the Rev. Basil Jackson, then at Kandy, who together with Major Phillips started it in 1933 or 1934. … Originally membership was limited to eight, which was the number of carbons which could be run off one typewriter. Subsequently membership increased slightly, but was always confined to a small group of amateur bird watchers.

Thilo eventually shouldered the burden of running the organization. He became its Secretary, Editor of its monthly journal, Treasurer and Chairman. Gradually he developed the club, with great dedication and success.

When Thilo joined the club it had a few dozen members. Its main purpose then was the exchange of notes on bird observations among them. Under him it widened to compiling, recording and providing information on the birds of Sri Lanka, and protecting them and their habitats. Thilo remarks:

“After taking over the Ceylon Bird Club from Roy McLeod Cameron, the last British Secretary, I steered it though a difficult period. If not for the devoted service of my personal secretary, Mrs Yvonne Nadarajah, the work of collecting, editing and typing the various contributions for the monthly journal could not have been done. We carried on until the situation changed and more young people became interested in birds. The Bird Club was then handed over to the new generation. Until then it had been virtually a ‘one-man show’, holding it in trust for them.”

The Club itself is a great feat and it is really astonishing how over a period of over 60 years a small band of volunteer members could produce and publish without fail the monthly Ceylon Bird Club Notes [CBCN], when during the same period many formerly famous journals of the Government and of other NGOs faltered, spaced out their issues and eventually disappeared altogether, e.g. The Tropical Agriculturist of the Agriculture Department, The Forester of the Forest Department, the Tea, Rubber and Coconut Quarterlies and the Annual Reports of heads of Government institutions, such as the Wildlife and Forest Departments.

Today, the CBC is widely regarded the world over as one of the principal bodies in the region concerned with avifauna. Among its 90-odd members, now selected from observers of proven reliability, are the leading ornithologists of Sri Lanka and several international experts and scholars. Much the greater part of the authentic information and analysis on the birds of the island has been published or provided by it. With Thilo’s dynamic example the club also continues to work effectively in the protection of critical bird habitats.

The CBCN has been published for every month since the inception of the club in 1943. It records among its subscribers eminent institutions abroad, such as the Bombay Natural History Society, the Oriental Bird Club, Natural History Museum, Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology in Britain, and the Smithsonian Institution in the USA. Several regional experts read and contribute to it. The CBCN forms the basis of most of the published literature about Sri Lankan birds, on aspects such as their status and distribution, ecology and behaviour.

In 1963 for the first time in Ceylon an effort was made to conduct a scientific study of the migratory habits of certain bird species. It was undertaken by the CBC in association with the Bombay Natural History Society. A population of more than 50,000 migrant Forest Wagtails were occupying the jungles of the Gal Oya valley. Using mist-nets Bird Club members caught and ringed 36 wagtails in that year and 92 in the next.

Since 1983 the club carries out an annual waterbird census, first organized by Thilo, as described later. It has continued to undertake studies and projects, and produce special publications. It services inquiries through correspondence, and on request assists State bodies and visiting ornithologists, all on an entirely voluntary basis. The club retains ‘Ceylon’ in its name for historical reasons – just as the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has desisted from the change to `Mumbai’.

During the time Thilo was Secretary and Chairman of the club it published a number of books and booklets, available to the public, in conformity with its aims and activities. These are listed at the end of this Chapter.

Into his nineties Thilo Hoffmann continued to play a valued part in the CBC, of which he is Chairman Emeritus, being consulted by its general committee and invited to participate in their meetings.

The Serendib Scope Owl, Otus thiloboffmanni, a new endemic discovered in 2001 by Deepal Warakagoda and named after Thilo Hoffmann.

He also remains the Chairman of the CBC Rarities and Records Committee. This body evaluates and determines the validity of reports of bird species and subspecies in Sri Lanka, including those from the past, and of new – i.e. previously unrecorded – or rare migrants. Established in 1985 under his direction, it consists of the Sri Lankan authorities and some of the international experts best qualified for the purpose, and is the only such active body in the region.

For nearly every month he has been in Sri Lanka, the material in the CBCN has included his own observations of birds and their habitats.

Connections overseas

Before Hoffmann took the helm of the CBC it had joined the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP) in Cambridge, Britain, the sole worldwide body for the protection of birds. For many years the club was Sri Lanka’s representative in it and was the ‘Sri Lankan National Section of the ICBP’. A delegate of the CBC regularly attended Asian Continental Section conferences held at four-yearly intervals in various countries of Asia, e.g. Indonesia and Thailand.

In 1984 the Club under Thilo hosted in Kandy the 10th Conference of the Asian Continental Section. The WNPS and March for Conservation assisted with the local arrangements. Representatives from 12 countries attended, as well as foreign agencies. The author of this biography, who was a participant, noted the efficient manner in which Thilo contributed to the great success of the occasion.

Hoffmann was elected Chairman of the Asian Section, the only person from Sri Lanka to hold this position. Two resolutions were passed in respect of Sri Lanka, as follows.

On endemic birds of Sri Lanka:

Whilst recognising Sri Lanka’s efforts to conserve important wildlife areas, the conference reminds the government respectfully that endemic species are irreplaceable and that together with their tropical and montane forest habitats, they are of great value to the people and country of Sri Lanka and indeed, the world and thus, urges the government of Sri Lanka to declare the few remaining [w]et and montane zone forest[s] in Sri Lanka as protected areas, and to take measures to safeguard these valuable habitats permanently from encroachment and other human activities.

On wetlands in Sri Lanka (the main theme of the conference was Wetlands in Asia’):

Recognizing the great importance of Sri Lanka’s many wetlands for indigenous waterbirds and migrating waders, ducks and seabirds and noting that the more important wetlands on the island have not yet been protected, the Conference urges the Government to do so immediately and to take steps to sign and ratify the Ramsay Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

Hoffmann submitted papers on national conservation issues as background to these two draft resolutions, as well as reports on wetlands and the pioneering Provisional Inventory of Wetlands in Sri Lanka published in Loris, December 1982, with a revision in 1984 (Appendix XIX).

Two years after this meeting Thilo attended the ICBP World Conference in Canada. As usual, he paid all costs out of his own pocket. Here, the new Directorate of the ICBP presented the draft of a new constitution, to turn it into a professional bureaucracy, with a network of similar organizations in the various countries, doing away with the proven National and Continental Sections. The main reasons for the change were rivalries between groups within single countries – e.g. Japan – and greed for the funds of mass movements

Hoffmann was the only speaker who strongly opposed this change, pleading instead for continuation of the mainly amateur-based National Sections, which had been the mainstay of ICBP for decades. This view received sincere applause, and the support of important National Sections, such as that of the USA. His stand delayed the change by four years. However, at the next World Conference, in his absence, the new constitution was accepted and quickly implemented.

The transformed body was called BirdLife International. New contacts were sought in various countries, including Sri Lanka. An emissary was sent to Colombo, unknown to the Club and Hoffmann. This person only contacted a new populistic group, was told that the Bird Club was “elitist”, and with that information returned to headquarters in the UK. The CBC was replaced by the group as the Sri Lanka representatives. Neither the CBC nor Thilo were contacted during or after this episode, or informed that they had been replaced and on what grounds, nor thanked for decades of good work in the past.

Hoffmann remarks: “The ICBP was effective on a small budget in bringing concerns for birds before the world. Its national amateur Sections provided the enthusiasm, the hard work and financing as well as specific knowledge on birds in close collaboration with the scientists and related organizations in their area – all at practically no cost. Today the international bureaucracy is mainly known for its high-gloss productions of doubtful value. There is as usual a lot of talk and lots of writings and publications but little effect, as an army of collaborators try to create paid work for themselves. Exceptions excluded!