Aruba (24-28 March, 2026)

From the perspective of a North American birder, the island of Aruba, which lies adjacent to Curaçao and Bonaire and merely 15 miles from Venezuela, may not be the sexiest of island birding destinations. Why not? Well, perhaps the biggest draw of island birding is the high degree of endemism that one usually encounters. There are, sadly, no bird species that are endemic to Aruba.

But arguably the second most appealing reason to get excited about island birding is the disproportionately high density of vagrants that might be found. Islands serve as terra firma oases surrounded by uninhabitable ocean. Birds that accidentally find themselves over water will take refuge anywhere, and islands present irresistible opportunities for much-needed rest and refueling.

Aruba is well-located for vagrants, positioned to receive birds from multiple directions. Vagrants may be migratory species from North America, or they may stray from nearby mainland South America. I would also imagine that certain dispersing species from the Greater and Lesser Antilles are also in play. 

As I browse the list of species recorded in eBird, it seems that Aruba generally does not see many vagrants from the Old World that have skipped across the Atlantic. The Lesser Antilles probably act as a pretty solid shield to block birds straying from the east (see Barbados's track record for comparison).

I visited Aruba from March 24-28, 2026. This was not a birding trip. The spotting scope didn't even make the packing list. But, I did spend a couple hours here and there poking around some spots, particularly within close range of our AirBNB in Savaneta.

Three life birds were on the table, and I would focus on finding these. One, RUBY-TOPAZ HUMMINGBIRD, per research seemed relatively easy at Spanish Lagoon/Balashi Gold Mill Ruins. This proved to be accurate. My first outing on the morning of the 25th, I headed straight there to search for the hummer and hopefully explore this appealing hotspot with varied habitat. It didn't take long to get a look at a female Ruby-topaz on the shrubby slopes between the ruins and the lagoon, and I saw a couple more while walking around. The island's "other" hummingbird, the more widespread Blue-tailed Emerald, was also present.

I enjoyed two pairs of BURROWING OWLS (one with a chick that briefly popped out of its underground lair). A pair of BROWN-THROATED PARAKEETS made an appearance. VENEZUELAN TROUPIALS are impossible to miss and can be seen & heard pretty much everywhere around the island.

Burrowing Owls

Venezuelan Troupial

Down in the mangroves, I studied the "Lesser Antillean" MANGROVE WARBLERS (I am trying to avoid calling them Mangrove Yellow Warblers because that is a silly name). The adult males are easy, as they look a lot like our (Northern ugh) Yellow Warblers but with a dark reddish cap. The young birds are equally distinctive, with the dullest being rather plain and dingy brown-gray. Some are brighter and appear tricolored: whitish underparts, green upperparts, and a contrasting gray collar. The adult females seemed the most difficult to separate from our Yellow Warblers. I only saw one presumed adult female and didn't pick up on any distinctive plumage features. However, all of the Mangroves I saw well appeared large-billed and long-tailed (or at least with tails that project quite a bit further beyond the undertail coverts than in our Yellows). There is supposed to be a difference in wing formula, but I was not able to appreciate this in the field and have no photos to analyze.

Walking back north along the water's edge, shorebirds included HUDSONIAN WHIMBREL, BLACK-NECKED STILT, both GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, and SOLITARY SANDPIPERS.

Bare-eyed Pigeon

Gray Kingbird

Tricolored Heron

Greater Yellowlegs

Black-necked Stilt

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Green Iguana

As I was scanning the lagoon, a hirundine caught my eye as it darted between a gap in the mangroves. It made several repeat passes back and forth, always on the same path, and always distant. Knowing that Barn Swallow is the only expected hirundine at this time of year, I quickly saw that it wasn't one of those. All I could tell in the distance, with the sun rising behind the bird, was that it seemed to have a steely blue back and sharp demarcation between dark and white on the cheek. Immediately my mind jumped to Tree versus Blue-and-white Swallow, as I figured it had to be one of those with that combination of features. Not knowing the status of either on the island, I checked eBird on my phone and saw that there weren't any eBird records of either species on Aruba. Great...

Questioning my initial impression based on the apparent rarity of either, I began to consider a small Progne (martin) sp. While it did not appear as large as my recollection of Caribbean Martin, which would be the most likely martin on the island at this date, I did consider a small race of Gray-breasted Martin. That species varies widely across its range, and a recent vagrant to New York City was noted to be rather small and swallow-like.

Unfortunately the bird showed no sign of getting any closer, and I was running out of birding time. My only option at that point was to "spray and pray." In other words, fire away as many photos as I could in hopes of getting something workable. The bird was a mere speck in the images, and I couldn't glean anything at all from BOC peeking.

Fast forward, when I had time to check the images later that day, I didn't have much to work with. I'd just have to let it go.

The following morning, prioritizing life birds over vagrant-searching, I decided to search for CRESTED BOBWHITE instead of returning to Spanish Lagoon. Research showed that the airport itself was as good a place as any to check for this uncommon species, so I arrived there pre-dawn. Conveniently, there is a linear trail that runs by the airport and has ample parking right at the perimeter fence. The sun wasn't yet up, but the trail was being used by a few joggers already. The main road behind me was busy with commuters, so listening was really difficult. I decided to try a bit of playback, as quail can be responsive. Sure enough, almost immediately I had a small covey of 3 Bobwhites scurrying through the grasses inside the airport fence. One of them showed quite well, though as noted before there was still no sun. They didn't linger; they kept on their way through the grass. Too easy!

Crested Bobwhite through a fence

As the sun was just about to rise, and the target bird in the proverbial bag much earlier than expected, I did return to Spanish Lagoon to search for that hirundine. It was still there, working the same super distant patch of mangroves. Again I couldn't glean anything else in the field, so literally just spent a half hour taking hundreds of images. This time I was able to capture more workable images, though still not good by any means. I went back and forth on the ID, from swallow to small Progne, though the face plumage did not really fit any martins I had seen before. Here's where the relative lack of experience with Gray-breasted Martin and Blue-and-white Swallow came into play. In addition, I had to make sure there were no other mainland South American species I was forgetting.

The bird appeared to have all or mostly white undertail coverts, which I thought ruled out Blue-and-white, but turns out the Patagonian subspecies of BAWS has mostly white UTCs. On top of that, they are highly migratory and have turned up at this latitude before. There is a record for Bonaire. Back to square one.

As far as Gray-breasted Martin goes, I was open-minded to this to being one of those. It has occurred on Aruba before, after all. I needed to dig further into the variation between their populations. Could they show a face pattern like that? A brief Macaulay image search didn't reveal any quite like this bird, but a few were kinda similar and rather white-throated. Perhaps it was possible. Research would be required when I had more time, probably back home.

I sent some images off to friends, all of whom felt it was more swallow-like versus a small Progne at first glance. But the images were awful and nobody could confidently do much with them.

Luckily, another birder had seen the bird later that first morning, and beautifully documented at least one TREE SWALLOW, a first for Aruba. He actually reported three of them which is fantastic. Mystery solved. Thanks, Edward!

Tree Swallow, poorly documented

After the fact, following up on some research at home for my own education, even these poor images seem sufficient to call Tree Swallow with some confidence. From the images I've seen of patagonica Blue-and-white Swallow, the rear undertail coverts appear to be dark, not stark white like on this bird. And I haven't been able to find a Gray-breasted Martin with underpart plumage quite like this.

The one remaining potential lifer, WHITE-TAILED NIGHTJAR, might take some effort. The NW corner of the island seemed the best place to search based on frequency of reports, but I did find an eBird pin from a trail less than 10 minutes from our place. Around 10pm I walked about a quarter mile down the trail, tried playback, and immediately had a bird giving a repeated high-pitched single note from just off the trail. This did not match any of the vocalizations I had on hand for nightjar. Still, I crept up on the sound, flashlight in hand, and soon a White-tailed Nightjar flew across the beam of my light. The bird relocated, began calling again, and I was able to track it and get a few nice views as it repositioned itself on either side of the trail. I did record the interesting (to me) vocalization and added it to the eBird checklist.

On our final morning, the 28th, while driving the south coastal road, a few swallows flew over the car. We pulled over and had a smattering of BARN and CLIFF SWALLOWS, the latter being a scarce spring migrant.

Cliff Swallows

It'd have been nice to have time to study the variety of SANDWICH TERNS that inhabit Aruba. The entire spectrum from Cayenne to Cabot's occur here, with bill patterns all over the place. I was only able to grab some brief views and photos of a few at Baby Beach in the southeast corner of the island. If we'd had another day or two, I would have dedicated more time to this. Back home in Connecticut, USA, Sandwich Tern is always a species of interest. Our North American form, Cabot's, is a rare bird in its own right. It is on the state Review List and occurs rarely as a stray from the south. There are also a few East Coast records of Cayenne Tern, the yellow-billed South American form of Sandwich, from as nearby as Long Island, NY. And there are even a few records of Eurasian Sandwich Tern from the US, including one likely from CT a few years ago. So any time I get to see Sandwich Terns while traveling, I try to give them a study. If I return to Aruba, that will be a priority.

Here are a few highly-cropped images from Baby Beach that give an idea of the variation in bill pattern observed.

Sandwich Terns

That about covers this non-birding visit to Aruba. Many of the best hotspots are on the west side of the island, including a few lagoons that attract shorebirds and waders. The ornithological highlight of Aruba is Bubali Bird Sanctuary, a wetland that boasts an eBird list of over 200 species. Bubali wasn't a priority for me given my target species, but it is obviously the go-to place if you find yourself birding Aruba.

Laughing Gull

Ruddy Turnstone

 - Nick