Red-fan Parrot / Kraagpapegaai, Fransmadam

Red-fan Parrot (Deroptyus accipitrinus)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Ronald Teulings	© K.D. Dijkstra	© Armida Madngisa nature guide
© Paul van Giersbergen	© Paul van Giersbergen	© Ton Plug
French Guiana © Pascal Dubois	French Guiana © Thierry Smallegange

The Red Fan Parrot lives in small groups in the treetops and can be recognised by its hawk-like head. When flying it has a broad, rounded and long tail and that too makes it resemble a hawk. It is rather common except near the coast. When excited, it can erect the feathers at the back of its neck. As the birds grow older, their forehead gets whiter, like some birds on the photos. They do nest in holes in trees made by woodpeckers, so the bird in the photo above may have plans here. The sound of a red-fan parrot was taped by Otte Ottema.
First photo of a red-fan parrot was made by Ronald Teulings, then a photo made by KD Dijkstra along the Coesewijne in september '07. Armida Madngisa saw them eating Açai berries (Euterpe oleracea, here called Podosiri) at the Kabalebo resort. Paul van Giersbergen saw the red fan Parrots near Apura in September 2014. Then a photo made by Pascal Dubois in French Guyane in 2002 and one by Thierry Smallegange in the same country in November 2014.
The video of mating birds was made by Fred Pansa of Ecotours and also the fantastic second video.

Birdsounds (click on them to listen)
Sound recording of a Red-fan Parrot © Otte Ottema, bird guide

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Red-fan Parrot © ;	Video recording of a Red-fan Parrot © ;

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Deroptyus accipitrinus
Order:	Psittaciformes
Family:	Psittacidae, 27 in Suriname
Dutch:	Kraagpapegaai, Fransmadam
English:	Red-fan Parrot
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Fransmadam
Guyana:	hawk-headed parrot
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Loro cacique
Portugese (Brazil):	Anacã
Arowak:	Hia-hia (sound)
Carib:	Makapoeja
French:	Papegeai maillé, Madame payée

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 449 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 4 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 449 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 4 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).