Photos were made by Foek Chin Joe near Republiek in Suriname in December 2006. The male has a unusual posture with longer feathers in his neck (just visible in the first picture) and nice orange eyes, as can be seen in both the photos. The female looks more normal with pale eyes. Giant cowbirds seem to like to eat rice, but I never saw them in Nickerie. They are broodparasites and are said to lay differently colored eggs, adapted to different hosts, as was already noted by the Penard brothers (famous Surinamese ornithologists) a hundred years ago. They lay their eggs in the hanging nests of oropendolas and caciques.
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.
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Photos of other blackbirds and of tanagers in Suriname
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