A small and inconspicious bird ( length 14 cm), that is better
known for its song and nest then for its looks.
It lives hidden between long grasses along watercourses and in
marshes. Often the most you see, is the movement of the grass,
while you hear its unmistakable song: long and vibrating, it
lasts for more then ten seconds and fades away at the end, as if
the spinetail were out of breath. Good places to hear it are at
Leiding, Weg naar Zee or along the Vijfde Rijweg. If you can
imitate the sound of the
yellow-chinned spinetail (38 kB) it will come near. Otherwise
it is rather shy.
The nest is big with respect to the bird. It is made from rather
thick twigs, it is round with a long entrance tube. It is hard to
imagine a small bird making such a building for itself.
The yellow-throated spinetail eats insects that it find between
the grass stalks, often feeding in couples with some young, just
out of the nest. The young do not yet have a yellow marking on
their throat, but even with the adults this is difficult to see.
Sometimes an egg of a striped cuckoo gets into their nest. How a
female cuckoo performs such an act (passing the entrance tube), I
don't know.
Photo by Pieter Verhey of a bird with an spider, maybe going to
its nest, in January 2007 and one by J.S. Dunning, both made in
Suriname and below a picture made by Erik Toorman in July 2007 at
Pomona in Suriname.
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. Prefers wet places
| Distribution in Suriname (explanation) | |
| Coastal area |  |
| Savanna |  |
| Forests | |
| Mountain forests | |
| Sipalawini savanna | |
Names in
More pictures of Surinamese birds