BIRDWATCHING IN THE SURROUNDINGS OF PARAMARIBO

More than 400 species of birds have been spotted in the surroundings of Paramaribo. The website of Jan Hein Ribot has a the total species list. Hotspots are Weg naar Zee, Peperpot and the Cultuurtuin.

Weg naar Zee

Weg naar Zee means road to the sea. It is a road about 5 km long through swampy meadows, with a lot of Snail Kites. Sometimes we see a Long-winged Harrier or a Limpkin. Red-breasted Blackbirds, with their incredibly red breasts, are common. Toco Toucan has been seen here. At the end, there are two places where we can reach the Atlantic Ocean: one is a Hindustani Temple and the other a crematorium. Here we can see thousands of North American shorebirds at the right season. During their breeding season, which lasts from April to September, Scarlet Ibises forage on the mudflats at low tide. Three egret species are common. This is probably the second-best place in the world to spot a Rufous Crab-Hawk. So far we have never missed it. In the mangroves along the coast, we have a good chance to find the Bicolored Conebill. You had better use insect repellent here, because mosquitoes have an even better chance to find us. There are no mosquitoes in the open area where we spot the shorebirds.

Peperpot

Peperpot is an abandoned coffee plantation. It’s full of coffee bushes overgrown with climbing plants with a canopy of coffee-mother trees, protecting the coffee from the sun. The coffee berries are eaten by many birds. One of our guests named it ‘the 100 yards birdwatching’ after two hours of bird watching and only 100 yards walking. This is the best spot to see the Ashy-headed Greenlet, Blood-colored Woodpecker and the Arowhead Piculet. Green Ibis and Slender-billed Kite may fly over our heads, while we listen to the song of the Cinnamon Attila, Blackish Antbird and/or Spotted Puffbird.

Cultuurtuin

Cultuurtuin means Culture Garden. It is a large complex of agriculturally oriented institutes, the Zoo and a Botanical Garden. In the latter we will easily find more than 50 species of common garden birds in less than two hours. Although it does not look lke a botanical garden, it was intended to be a copy of Bogor, the botanical garden of Djakarta, Indonesia. Hence we find here a mixture of Indonesian and indigenous trees. On the leaves of the large water-lily Victoria amazonica we often see caiman sunbathing. Least Grebes have been sighted in the pond and we have a fairly good chance to see Lesser Kiskadee. The best attraction is a lek of Crimson-hooded Manakins.

[photos] Red-breasted Blackbird by Nobuhisa Takano, Arrowhead Piculet, and Crimson-hooded Manakin by Candi McManiman.