Birds in Paramaribo, Suriname

The table gives all the birds (363 species) that I could find reported to be reliably observed (seen, heard, caught) in Paramaribo. Here I have included observations from the Cultuurtuin, from different parts of the town as Beekhuizen, Charlesburg, Geijersvlijt, Leysweg, Tweede Rijweg, Zorg en Hoop and from the Suriname river just along the town. Older observations from Ma Retraite (a former coffee plantation, now part of the town) and reports from Kwatta or Leonsberg are not included. Also observations from Paramaribo before 1940 were excluded.

The right column gives the number of times an observer made a report, that was subsequentially processed into my database (maximum: 231 for the house wren). How big a group of birds was seen each time, is not indicated here. Many hundreds can be seen of species like the short-tailed swift, cattle egret, fork-tailed flycatcher, grey-breasted martin and barn swallow and, in any way fifty years ago, of scarlet ibis and black-bellied tree-duck. All birds of one species seen on the same day are counted as one observation.

Paramaribo seems to be the capital with the highest number of parrot species seen, in the world (16, see below).

The list was revised in accordance with Otte Ottema from STINASU, the nature protection foundation in Suriname.

Last update September 2005 by Ribot