Along the Sinnamary basin in French Guiana (South America) a succession of forest types occurs from the Ridge forest at the mouth of the river to the primary rain forest on the slopes of the narrowing valley 100 km to the south but only 35 m above sea level at the upper part of the dam reservoir of Petit-Saut.

The aim of the present work was to determine the relationship between bird community structure and river zonation.
This study will point out the variations in species richness and trophic structure for understory avifaunas in four forest habitats of the Sinnamary basin :

1) Sinnamary river mature rain forest: slopes of the valley at less than 100 m from the Sinnamary river and at 100 km of the mouth ; 2) Secondary forest (25 km from the mouth): from clear cuts at various stages of growth; (lire la suite…)

From 23 April to May 1976, J. A. Dick and W. B. McGillivray obtained a reference collection of bird specimens and studied aspects of the natural history and ecology of the avifauna of the Saül area.

In 1977, from 21 January-27 February, W. B. McGillivray with D. J. Brooks returned to Saül to continue the fieldwork. The specimens acquired during the first trip are housed in the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, Canada and those of the second trip in the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas (KU), Lawrence, Kansas.

In 1976, J. A. Dick and W. B. McGillivray set 10, 12-m mist nets in a row in mature rainforest 3 km SE of Saül. The families Apocynaceae, Bursaraceae, Lecythidaceae, Sapotaceae, Leguminosae, Rubiaceae, Anacardiaceae, Moraceae and Arecaceae were conspicuously represented in the rainforest.

Most acquisition in 1976, apart from netted birds, was done along the road to the airstrip or near the airstrip itself. In 1977, mist nets were set up in the same area as in 1976. Also in that year, two nets were placed at heights of 10 and 15 m near a flowering Miconia tree along the airport road. (lire la suite…)

One group of brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) was observed for 19 months in French Guiana. White Hawks (Leucopternis albicollis) were seen in association with these monkeys throughout the year.

Our study revealed that :

(1) hawks mainly followed capuchins in open forest types, and in this vegetation they mainly flew at the height of 10-20 m from the ground where horizontal visibility is better than in other strata of the forest, (lire la suite…)

In French Guiana, the nesting of the Rufous-tailed Flatbill (Ramphotrigon ruficauda) occurs during the main dry season from mid-July to the end of October.

This rain forest inhabitant nests exclusively at the bottom of cavities in the end of broken trunks or large fallen branches near the ground. (lire la suite…)

L’analyse d’un milieu aussi complexe que la forêt tropicale sud-américaine ne peut être envisagée qu’à long terme et avec de gros moyens, aussi avons-nous entrepris dans un premier temps l’étude d’une “fraction” de cet ecosystème.

Sans ignorer les multiples interactions qui lient tous les organismes vivant dans la même biocénose, nous avons considéré tout spécialement une communauté de mammifères frugivores arboricoles nocturnes et les principales espèces végétales qu’ils exploitent. Le milieu choisi, forêt secondaire néotropicale, représente un stade de la régénération forestière. (lire la suite…)