Fork-tailed Flycatcher / Vorkstaart Koningstiran, Sesei grikibi

Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Carla Out	© Carla Out	© Ronald Teulings
© Dominiek Plouvier	© Armida Madngisa nature guide	© Ton Plug
© Dominiek Plouvier	© Dominiek Plouvier	French Guiana © Roland Jantot

The Fork-tailed Flycatcher has a very long tail, that opens and closes in flight like scissors. This flycatcher is found on savannas and open fields in the coastal region. They sleep together in large numbers in the mangrove and also near Paramaribo in trees and palms. The birds in the northern part of Suriname are migrants, mostly coming from the south of the continent and some from Venezuela. They stay in Suriname between april and september, the largest numbers are seen at the end of the rainy season. Around August groups of dozens of birds can be seen. In the Sipalawini savanna in the south the bird stays the whole year and probably breeds.
The birds catch insects in a flycatcher manner, first sitting on low branches or barbed wire untill they see a prey and fly up. Mees observed them eating the fruits of the royal palm: they pick them from the tree in flight and swallow them in one piece.
The first and second photo were made by Carla Out in Paramaribo in September 2006 and the third one by Ronald Teulings also in Suriname. The next one is by Dominiek Plouvier and one comes from Armida Madngisa at Kabalebo in March 2014.
Dominiek Plouvier made a video of a Fork-tailed Flycatcher that makes a soft sound.

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Fork-tailed Flycatcher © ;

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:	Tyrannus savana
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae, 91 in Suriname
Dutch:	Vorkstaart Koningstiran, Sesei grikibi
English:	Fork-tailed Flycatcher
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Seseigrikibi, basjafowru, basja fowru
Guyana:	Scissors tail
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Atrapamoscas tijereta
Portugese (Brazil):	Tesoura
Arowak:	Holiekaloe/Miemietjie
Carib:	Koetaselie
French:	Tyran des savanes

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 411 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 1 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 411 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 1 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 ).