Species Fact Profile: Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana)

                                                                  Wattled Jacana

                                               Jacana jacana (Linnaeus, 1766)

Range: South America (east of the Andes). Panama, Trinidad

Habitat: Freshwater Wetlands

Diet: Small Invertebrates (Insects, Arachnids, Mollusks), Small Fish, Seeds, Aquatic Plants (possibly ingested unintentionally while feeding on invertebrates)

Social Grouping: Territorial during breeding season, but very social dry season, sometimes forming large flocks with established hierarchies among females

Reproduction: Breed in wet season.  Polyandrous, with one female breeding with up to four to five males.  Male responsible for incubation of the eggs (held between the wings and breast), though the female may help defend the nests.  3-5 eggs (brown with black markings) laid in a floating mass of vegetation, incubated about 25 days.  Chicks cared for by male for 40-70 days before independent.  Sexually mature at 2 years

Lifespan: 5-6 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern 

• Body length 17-23 centimeters, females larger than males.  Rounded wings, short tail.  Most recognizable physical feature are the very long toes and claws, which help it walk through/over aquatic vegetation
• Sexes look alive.  Body predominately black, with chestnut back and wing coverts.  Green-yellow flight feathers.  Yellow bony spurs on the wings, yellow bill with a red head-shield, red wattle.  Legs and feet are dull blue-gray.  Younger birds have white underparts.
• Weak fliers, usually only fly for a short distance.  Good swimmers and divers, can swim underwater, and may hide there with only the tip of their beak breaking the surface for air.
• Predators include raptors, otters, turtles, crocodilians, and large fish.  Wing spurs used for defense
• If chicks are in danger, the male may pick up the chicks, holding two under each wing, legs dangling down, and carry them to a safer location.  Males may also feign injury to lure predators from the nest or the chicks
• Sometimes found climbing on the backs of capybaras, removing ticks and other parasites
• Five or six recognized subspecies, varying mostly in pattern (one, J. j. hypomelaena, is all black)
• Name comes from the Portuguese version of the Tupi naha'na, meaning "very loud bird."  Locally known as the tek teky, spurwing, or lily trotter