The smallest country in South America punches surprisingly above its weight in birding terms. As opposed to most of the continent, Suriname is more culturally Caribbean having no hint of Latin culture. Fought over primarily by the British and Dutch, it was the Dutch that eventually colonised modern day Suriname electing to keep their plantations here, and allowing the British to maintain control over New Amsterdam (modern day New York) in North America.
Suriname lies on the Guiana Shield, sandwiched between Guyana and French Guiana with the vast expanse of Brazil to the south. Tropical rainforest and savannah cover over 75% of the land, with at least 16% of the country designated as National Parks. Even for such a small country, the biodiversity is immense due to the wide variety of habitats covering savanna, freshwater marshes, coastal mangroves and tropical lowland rainforest. We visit some of the primary birding hotspots such as Brownsberg Nature Park, Coppename River watershed, Voltzberg inselberg and Palumeu.
Our primary targets on this Suriname birding tour are mostly endemic to the Guiana Shield such as Guianan Cock-of-the-rock, Blood-colored Woodpecker, Rufous Crab Hawk, Arrowhead Piculet, Green-throated Mango, Capuchinbird, Blue-backed Tanager, Boat-billed Tody-Tyrant, Guianan Red Cotinga, White-throated Pewee, Crimson Fruitcrow, Dusky Purpletuft, Finsch's Euphonia, Red-and-black Grosbeak and Grey-winged Trumpeter. Mammals are equally numerous, with Guianan Red Howler Monkey, Golden-faced Saki, Guiana Spider Monkey, Bearded Saki and Golden-handed Tamarin.