Slender-billed Kite / Slanksnavel wouw

Slender-billed Kite (Helicolestes hamatus)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Foek Chin Joe	© Jan Hein Ribot	© Carl Beel
© Jean-Louis Rousselle	© Jean-Louis Rousselle	© Jan Hein Ribot
© Klaas de Jong	© Dominiek Plouvier	© Dominiek Plouvier

Slender-billed Kite: This bird of prey is often seen in trees in wet places, especially in swamps. It eats snails with its curved bill, like its cousin the snail kite. It doesn't have the white near the tail of the snail kite, but it is totally grey. It is confined to the coastal area.
First a beautiful photo of a slender-billed kite made by Foek Chin Joe north of Paramaribo and then a picture made by Dominiek Plouvier in Nickerie and one by Ribot in a marsh near the Coesewijne river, all in Suriname. The last one, in flight, by Carl Beel above the bird trail of Peperpot plantation.

Birdsounds (click on them to listen)
Sound recording of a Slender-billed Kite © Otte Ottema, bird guide

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Slender-billed Kite © ;	Video recording of a Slender-billed Kite © ;	Video recording of a Slender-billed Kite © ;

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:	Helicolestes hamatus
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae, 33 in Suriname
Dutch:	Slanksnavel wouw
English:	Slender-billed Kite
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Aka, as all birds of prey
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	gavilán pico de hoz
Portugese (Brazil):	Caramujeiro?
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Milan a long bec

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 358 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 7 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 358 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 7 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 ).