Marine treasures: The Blue button (Porpita porpita)

Anyone visiting and strolling along the coast regularly can encounter a bright blue organism resembling a jellyfish after a period of change in wave and wind patterns: the Blue Button.

Special visitors: Black skimmers

Black skimmers are regular visitors to the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao and can be spotted as early as May.

Wild flowers: Teku di palu (Tillandsia flexuosa)

The Teku di palu, also known as Yerba di cabai, tree bromeliad, or Tillandsia (Tillandsia flexuosa), is an epiphytic plant that grows in areas on the islands with high humidity.

Tiny critters: Cactus lady beetle (Chilocorus cacti)

Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao are home to various species of lady bugs, or lady beetles although most people do not really recognize them.

Wild flowers: Kibrahacha (Handroanthus billbergii)

There is no plant that indicates the state of the weather as well as the Kibrahacha. Every year, it is a big question when these trees will ‘feel’ enough rainwater to reveal themselves in an explosion of yellow flowers within a few days. In some years, it is not until well into June that we can really admire the beautiful flowers of this tree.

Fish: Longsnout seahorse (Hippocampus reidi)

It is not every day that you swim into a seahorse, and it is therefore a spectacular experience to be able to observe one.

Tiny critters: Needle nose flies (Genus Geron)

The taxonomic family Bombyliidae, also known as the Bee flies, is a family of flies whose species are generally very hairy and have a woolly appearance. The family consists of various genera, including the genus Geron, which includes about 180 species worldwide. This genus is also known as the Needle nose flies in English.

Wild flowers: the starry flower of the Red Mangrove

The Red Mangrove or Mangel tan (Rhizophora mangel) as it is called in Papiamentu, is known as the mangrove tree with the stilt roots that grows in the salt water of the sea.

The Johnstone’s Whistling Frog (Eleutherodactylus johnstonei)

Some people absolutely hate them, while others love them. Whistling frogs leave no one entirely unmoved.

Black Birds on the ABC Islands – Save & share!

There are birds on our islands that still cause a lot of confusion when people ask for their identification. Despite the abundance of books, online information, and social media, some bird species are apparently so similar that they are consistently misnamed, practically creating online wars over who wants to be right. In practice, this usually involves the group of small yellow birds and the group of medium-sized black birds. In this article, we focus on the black breeding birds found on the islands, with comparative photos. To save and share whenever the discussion starts again.

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