Surinam has done it again! Here we have a fine pair of stamps in similar style to earlier issues, and like most of them, with only the birds' local names given. The higher value is called "kepanki" and is obviously a Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana), which can be confirmed in the Birds of Suriname.

I have done extensive searches for "Blauwtje" but have not found the name assigned to a South American bird. It seems to be a Dutch name given to a family of blue butterflies. I have produced a detailed image.

When I first saw this I thought it might be a Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) which has already been shown by Surinam on the 1966 5c issue - detail. The local name is "Blauwfoortje" which was confirmed in the Restricted Encyclopedia of Suriname, but this has since been removed from the Web.

I have received the following from Jan Ribot who manages the Birds of Suriname web site :-

The name blauwtje is used for Thraupis episcopus, blue grey tanager.
The bird has a lot of names: blawforki means blue bird same in dutch blauwtje. The problem is the lack of standardiation of Surinamese and that the stamps have sometimes the sranan (Surinamese) and sometimes the Dutch name as used in Suriname.

If anyone has any more information about this, please let me know.