Straggling to Islands-South American Birds in the Islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire, South Caribbean

Abstract

The number of bird species up to 31 December 1981 recorded from the South Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire, 30-87km distant from the South American coast and 800km from the nearest islands north of the Caribbean Basin, is 231. Among these are 62 breeding species, divided up into 33 land birds, 19 fresh water birds and 10 seabirds. The balance of 169 species (73%) consists of non-breeding visitors, 61 of which (26%) are migrants from North America and 34 (15%) migrants and stragglers from South America; besides, there are 5 species and subspecies of inter-Caribbean migrants. Oversea-flights of land and fresh water birds in the South Caribbean have been studied and the cases recorded summarized. Oversea-flights appear to be a regular phenomenon, though the collecting of facts is largely a matter of chance. In view of the apparent stream of visitors, of which some can be considered as ecological prospectors, it is thought that not the stability of the ecological interactions of the insular land birds, but rather the stability of the specialized, and seemingly unfavourable conditions of aridity are responsible for the image of stability of the avian island faunas in the South Caribbean.