The wattled jacana ( Jacana jacana) is a wader in the family Jacanidae found throughout much of South America east of the Andes Mountains, as well as western Panama and Trinidad.[STRAUBE, Fernando C. et al. Aves de Curitiba: coletânea de registros. Curitiba: Hori Consultoria Ambiental, 2009.] It is the only species in the Jacanidae family with such a large distribution.[French, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton; Eckelberry, Don R. (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing. .] Wattled jacanas have long toes and claws which help them walk through aquatic vegetation. Like the majority of species of jacanas, the female is larger than the male, and forms harems of up to 4 or 5 males at any given time.[Emlen, Wrege, Stephen T, Peter H (1 April 2004). «Size Dimorphism, Intrasexual Competition, and Sexual Selection in Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana), A Sex-Role-Reversed Shorebird in Panama». Oxford Academic, Ornythology. Accessed 11 Novembro 2021.]
Etymology
"Jacana" comes from the
Tupi language word
ñaha'nã which means "very loud bird".
[FERREIRA, A. B. H. Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa. Segunda edição. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1986. p.978]
Breeding
The wattled jacana lays four black-marked brown eggs in a floating nest. The male, as with other jacanas and some other wader families like the
, takes responsibility for incubation, with two eggs held between each wing and the breast. The females are polyandrous and will help to defend the nests of up to four mates.
Description
These are conspicuous and unmistakable birds. They are long, but the females are larger than the males. The adults have a chestnut back and wing coverts, with the rest of the body mainly black. In flight the greenish yellow flight feathers are obvious. Also visible are yellow bony spurs on the leading edge of the wings, which it can use to defend itself and its young. The yellow bill extends up as a red
coot-like head shield and a reddish wattle, and the legs and very long toes are dull blue-grey.
Young birds initially have entirely white underparts, and can always be identified by the presence of white in their plumage.
Taxonomy
There are six
subspecies, with the nominate
J. j. jacana being the most widespread. Several of the other
subspecies are similar, but
J. j. hypomelaena of western Panama and northern
Colombia has all the chestnut plumage replaced by black, and
J. j. scapularis of western
Ecuador has some black feathers on its chestnut shoulders, and white outer primary feathers.
Wattled jacana (Jacana jacana) immature.JPG|Juvenile J. j. jacana
the Pantanal, Brazil
Wattled jacana (Jacana jacana).JPG|Adult J. j. jacana
the Pantanal, Brazil
Wattled jacana (Jacana jacana) in flight.JPG| J. j. jacana in flight
the Pantanal, Brazil
Wattled jacana (Jacana jacana) alighting composite.jpg| J. j. jacana alighting
the Pantanal, Brazil
Subspecies
This species produces a range of noisy rattling calls.
Diet
The wattled jacana's food is
(such as
,
and crickets),
other invertebrates (e.g.
and
), small
fish, roots
and seeds picked from the floating vegetation or the water's surface.
Wattled jacana (Jacana jacana hypomelaena) immature.jpg|Immature J. j. hypomelaena
Chagres River, Panama
Wattled jacana (Jacana jacana hypomelaena) subadult.jpg|Subadult J. j. hypomelaena
Chagres River, Panama
Wattled jacana (Jacana jacana hypomelaena).jpg|Adult J. j. hypomelaena
Chagres River, Panama
External links
