The scarlet ibis is a vivid scarlet bird (50 cm) with a curved
bill. The sensitive bill is used to search for food, mainly small
animals in the mud along the coast.
The scarlet ibises live in large groups and fly in V-formation
from their roosts to their feeding grounds. They contrast
splendidly with the normal green color of the landscape, the
brown of the mud flats and the blue of the sky. The young are
brown with a white rump and belly.
The ibis feed in shallow waters along the coast, in the mud flats
and in the lagoons. As is known from the zoo, they have to eat
the right kind of food to retain their color. They sleep in large
groups in the mangrove trees along the coast, together with
herons. In these trees they make their nest (a pile of sticks)
and both parents take care of the young.
Arie Spaans and Ben de Jong (and Muriël Held) have been counting
the numbers of breeding pairs for many years in Suriname and
sometimes also in the surrounding countries. They acted for the
foundation for the preservation of nature in Suriname (STINASU).
The maximum number of breeding pairs in Suriname (35.000 in 1986)
is a substantial part of the South American population of the
scarlet ibis. But the species is highly migratory and the numbers
for Suriname (and other places) fluctuate. The ibises breed in
young mangroves and if not enough of these trees are found in
Suriname, the birds fly away to breed on the coast of Colombia,
Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana or Brazil. In Trinidad they are
protected as the the national bird of that island, but they did
not breed there for the last 30 years. A very short video of three
scarlet ibises, walking in a zoo is also avalaible.
Brightly colored adult below
young bird changing from brown to red.
flying to their evening roost in the mangrove
On and around their nest in the mangrove with one white heron around.
Each small square indicates the observation of at least 1 (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least 4 observations and the largest ones 10 or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
The pictures at the top of the ibis in the tree was made by
Dominiek Plouvier at Weg naar Zee in December 2009. The flying
ibises were made by Dirk jan Hoek (two ibisses with mud still on
their faces) and Jan Hein Ribot (Weg naar Zee). The last above
the text by Carla Out. Then follow, by Eric Thomassen, two
pictures at low tide in Coronie in 2007, one by Steven Wytema at
Weg naar Zee and two by J.H. Ribot, (Walsrode Zoo and Emmen Zoo),
the last one of a young getting its adult colors. Then follow two
pictures made by Arie Spaans of birds flying near and sitting on
their nests in the mangrove in Suriname. Below a not so scarlet
young, photographed by Dennis Binda along the coast in Suriname
in August 2008 of a bird with an age of only a couple of months .
More pictures of
waterbirds in Suriname on other pages.
| Distribution in Suriname (explanation) | |
| Coastal area |  |
| Savanna |  |
| Forests | |
| Mountain forests | |
| Sipalawini savanna | |
Names in 
More pictures of waterbirds in Suriname
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