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Suriname, located on the Atlantic coast of northeastern South America, is a relatively small country compared to most other South American countries. It nevertheless has a rich avifauna. By the end of 2017, 751 species (including 765 subspecies) were known to occur in Suriname. Most of the land area of Suriname is still covered with tropical rainforest and the country should be a must-visit for birdwatchers. Suriname is even mentioned as being the best country to spot certain neotropical species. Surprisingly, few birders visit Suriname. The main reason given is the lack of a handy pocket guide that can easily be carried in a backpack. This (revised and updated) edition of the Field Guide to the Birds of Suriname (with its 109 colour plates) tries to fill this gap. In addition to species accounts, data on topography, climate, geology, geomorphology, biogeography, avifauna composition, conservation, and hotspots for bird watching are given.
Compared to the first edition, the second edition adds five species and subspecies, and two colour plates.
During the 1970s, dr. Arie L. Spaans (1937) lived for five years in Suriname where, on behalf of the Suriname Forest Service, he studied the distribution and ecology of coastal birds. Since then, he has regularly been returning to Suriname for short field trips. He is the author of Coastal Birds of Suriname (2003) and (with Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot as co-authors) has also published an Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Suriname (2009). Since 2002, he is chairman of the Foundation Friends of Nature Conservation in Suriname.
During the 1990s, Otte H. Ottema (1952) lived for nine years in French Guiana, running a school for children of Surinamese refugees and working for a French nature conservation organization. In 1999, he moved to Suriname where he worked for the Foundation for Nature Conservation in Suriname (STINASU). Since his retirement in 2010, he has been working as a freelance bird guide. He is the author of Wild Birds of Paramaribo (2007) and was a co-author of the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Suriname.
Dr. Jan Hein J.M. Ribot (1949) lived in Suriname from 1978 until 1985, working as a lecturer in physics at the University of Suriname. From 1985 until his retirement in 2014, he worked at the University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. He regularly returns to Suriname. He is a co-author of the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Suriname and maintains a website on Suriname birds that he started 20 years ago.
