The male of the shiny cowbird is a black bird with a purple
lustre. The female is brown-grey as in the second and third
picture. They are common in the whole coastal area from mangrove
and ricefields to the gardens, where they seek for insects.
Sometimes they are together in very large groups at the end of
the day.
The female will seek for nests of other birds. As a
brood-parasite, she lays her egg in the nests of different kinds
of small birds, like the house wren and the pied water-tyrant.
The young of the cowbird will outgrow the other young, get all
the food and eventually fledge alone. In town it is mainly the
house wren that gets the parental care of the cowbird-young. The
house wren will breed very near or in houses and buildings, but
the female cowbird apperently is not very shy and will lay her
egg even there. As a result you will see a small house wren
feeding a much bigger young, even inside buildings, like the
waiting young on the last photo. It seems already big enough to
take care of itself.
Photos of male and two females and a young bird at the top of the
page were made by Leo Olmtak, the two below the text (male and
young) by Jan Hein Ribot and the house wren with the young
cowbird is made by KD Dijkstra, all in the vicinity of
Paramaribo. Leo Olmtak also made this video of
shiny Cowbirds in his garden.
Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds in Surinam, 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.
| Distribution in Suriname (explanation) | |
| Coastal area |  |
| Savanna |  |
| Forests |  |
| Mountain forests | |
| Sipalawini savanna | |
Names in
More pictures of blackbirds from Suriname
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