Shiny Cowbird / Glanskoevogel, Putter

Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Leo Olmtak	© Leo Olmtak	© Leo Olmtak
© Leo Olmtak	© Jean-Louis Rousselle	House Wren feeds Shiny Cowmbird young © K.D. Dijkstra
© Paul van Giersbergen	© Jan Hein Ribot	© Jan Hein Ribot
© Dominiek Plouvier	© Dominiek Plouvier

Shiny Cowbird: The male 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 in his garden, Jean-Louis Rousselle saw the bird at Nieuw Amsterdam in November 2013, the photo of the house wren with the young cowbird is made by KD Dijkstra, all in the vicinity of Paramaribo.
Dominiek Plouvier made the first video of a calling shiny Cowbirds. Dick Lock made the second video of a young bird begging to be fed by a house wren.

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Shiny Cowbird © ;	Video recording of a Shiny Cowbird © ;

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:	Molothrus bonariensis
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Icteridae, 13 in Suriname
Dutch:	Glanskoevogel, Putter
English:	Shiny Cowbird
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Putter
Guyana:	Oatsie
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Tordo mirlo
Portugese (Brazil):	Chopim, Gaudério, Maria-preta
Arowak:	Hiebiebiejoe
Carib:	Kalawse (like many rice-eating birds)
French:	Vacher luisant

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 326 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 68 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 326 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 68 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 ).