Whimbrel are very commonly seen whenever we travel south in the winter. Whether in Florida, the Caribbean or South America. This one was observed recently in Aruba.
Whimbrels probe with their long bills into mudflats or wet sand for invertebrates such as crabs, walking slowly through areas where water is very shallow.
I found the following article rather interesting and have reposted it here.
Only one subspecies occurs in North America (hudsonicus); another three occur in Eurasia. The four subspecies differ mostly in the pattern of tail, rump, and back. Subspecies hudsonicus is uniformly brown in this area, whereas the three other subspecies have varying amounts of white. The nominate subspecies, phaeopus, which nests from Iceland to central Siberia, has a white rump and back. The very rare subspecies alboaxillaris, which nests in the steppe of southern Russia, is similar but larger and has white underwings. In northeastern Russia, the subspecies variegatus has a brown back and barred white rump. Both phaeopus and variegatus are recorded rarely but almost annually in the United States. Cornell All About Birds
