Avifauna of the Easternmost Tepui, Tafelberg in Central Suriname Research Paper

We conducted ornithological surveys of Tafelberg mountain, Suriname, in November–December 2005 and August–September 2008 and also surveyed the adjacent lowlands in both forest and savanna habitats around the Kappel Airstrip. We recorded a total of 283 species, including 27 Guianan endemics and 2 tepuian endemics (Heliodoxa xanthogonys and Hylophilus sclateri). Four species were new for Suriname and represented significant range extensions (Chamaeza campanisona, Hemitriccus inornatus, Turdus leucops and Turdus olivater). First specimen vouchers were collected for Dysithamnus leucostictus, Heliodoxa xanthogonys, Hylophilus sclateri, Catharus minimus and Piranga rubra, and first vocal evidence was obtained for the presence of Aeronautes montivagus in Suriname. The Kappel avifauna (266 species) was composed of species that would be expected to occur in the Guianan lowlands, but the presence of Hemitriccus inornatus was unexpected and implies a much wider distribution for this elusive tody-tyrant. The avifauna of the Tafelberg summit was composed of 170 species including 18 montane species, most of which are known disjunctly from the Guianan highlands further west, but one (Dysithamnus leucostictus) is otherwise known only from the coastal mountains of Venezuela and the Andes. The isolated Tafelberg population of the latter may represent an undescribed species.

Area of interest: Suriname

Year: 2011