Can you give me idea of what you are likely to find in Sinharaja and any good tips for birding around here
Take a look at
this eBird checklist for what we saw in a given day. There are several other checklists around that date for other more specific areas. Search on the district "Sabaragamuwa Palata" in the Explore Regions search, and look at anything from myself or Bret Whitfield between Nov. 28 and Dec.1. We were on the same tour.
Many of those species were in the primary forest near the Education Center at the top of the hill (4WD required) on the trail to the Research Station. Red-faced Malkoha & Sri Lanka Thrush are only up there. There's also a simple lodge called "Martin's Lodge" about 300m down the road from the top. They have a feeder but many birds that don't come to the feeder come to the trees around the feeder including White-faced Starling and Legge's Flowerpecker. We also spent some time hawk-watching for Legge's Hawk-eagle there, but didn't get it there (though the guides said that's the best place for it). The road up to the top had lots of good birds including 3 different barbets, Sri Lanka Green-Pigeons, Sri Lanka Grey Hornbills, Green-billed Coucal, and Crimson-backed Flamebacks. If you hit a fruiting tree, you're in business.
Sri Lanka Blue Magpies are easy at the Park HQ (there's a feeding station). Spot-winged Thrush and Indian Blue-robin can be seen there, too. There were a lot of good birds (endemics) down the road from the HQ, too.
Other toughies like Serendib Scops-Owl, Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Sri Lanka Bay Owl, and Sri Lanka Spurfowl are staked out, but you'll need a guide/ranger to show them to you.
Also, if you want to see what we got at Kitulgala, we were there from Nov-21-23. There's a few checklists for there, too.
One more thing: wear your leech socks. They're voracious little buggers there.