This oropendola is a robust, dark bird (length 43 cm) with
conspicious yellow tail feathers and a citron yellow bill. The
male clearly is bigger than the female, characteristic for this
family of birds (oropendolas, caciques, the red breasted
blackbird, orioles and cowbirds in Suriname).
Their English and Latin name means: 'with hanging nest'. The
oropendola makes a spherical nest of palmfibres, hanging from a
branch of a high isolated tree. The nests and the birds are
easily spotted as oropendolas breed in colonies. And they often
make a very special sound and make acrobatic movements around a
branch of a tree as in the third photo. In the breeding season
(november to april) we can see them seeking for fibres of palm
leaves and take them to their nesting tree very elegantly. In
this tree there is often a male making funny noises (listen to
the video), while hanging from a branch. Sometimes it gets so
exited that it will flip around the branch. Near the nests are
sometimes nests of wasps, that form a protection for the birds
and their young.
Other birds make it a habit to lay their eggs in these nests and
those of the family member, the yellow-rumped cacique. In
Suriname especially the cuckoos and cowbirds 'commit' such brood
parasitism.
First picture was made by Wouter Plouvier of a Oropendola taking
some nesting material from a cocos palm, the second and third
beautiful ones by Louis des Tombe. Below the text first two
pictures by Tinus Knegt taken at the Frederiksdorp plantation in
November 2008 and then two photos by Dominiek Plouvier, all from
Suriname. To see them makes me homesick, they so remind me of
nature in the tropics. There is a short
video of oropendolas in a nesting tree made by Raoul Ribot at
Republiek and the sound of a
Crested Oropendola, recorded by Alexandre Renaudier in French
Guyana near Awala-Yalimapo in June 2008.
Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least 4 observations on different days and the largest ones 10 or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest. It is often found in groups of up to 100 (as in Apoera, 1984, Ribot).
| Distribution in Suriname (explanation) | |
| Coastal area |  |
| Savanna | |
| Forests |  |
| Mountain forests | |
| Sipalawini savanna | |
Names in:
More pictures of the family of American blackbirds, like the Oropendola
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