The list of Sri Lanka’s endemic birds keeps growing, and not only because of discoveries. Birds long treated as local races of mainland species are re-examined, and some are found to be species in their own right. In 2022 the Sri Lanka Shama was separated from the White-rumped Shama in this way.
Nothing about the bird changed. Only our attention did.
That is why a count of endemic species always comes with a date beside it. Different checklists give different numbers, and each number is a statement about how closely we have looked so far.