Overview
Northern Jacana: Rail-like relative of plovers and shorebirds; is unique in having extremely long toes. Body is chestnut-brown with black head and neck, and flashy yellow-green flight feathers. Forehead has a fleshy orange-yellow frontal shield arising from base of bill. Weak mothlike flight.
Range and Habitat
Northern Jacana: Found from south Texas to Panama. Found in marshes, flooded fields, and slow-moving waters.
Jacanas (Jacanidae)
ORDER
Wading birds such as the sandpipers, oystercatchers, stilts, and jacanas are four of the nineteen families in the taxonomic order CHARADRIIFORMES (pronounced kah-RAH-dree-ih-FOR-meez).
FAMILY TAXONOMY
The family Jacanidae (pronounced juh-KAN-uh-dee) is composed of eight species of jacanas in six genera occurring in most tropical regions of the world.
NORTH AMERICA
Two species of jacana in one genus occur in North America. These are the Northern Jacana and the Wattled Jacana.
KNOWN FOR
Jacanas are known for their ability to deftly walk on floating marsh vegetation. This has given the Northern Jacana (and other jacana species) the nicknames, “lily-trotter” and “Jesus-bird.”
PHYSICAL
Small to medium in size, jacanas have rounded bodies with a slender neck, small head, and thin, straight, medium length bill. They have very short tails and fairly short, rounded wings. The features that stand out the most on jacanas are their long legs with extremely long, thin toes.
COLORATION
The two North American species have dark brown and black plumage as adults, while juveniles have white on the face and underparts. The wings of jacanas are bright yellow; a feature mostly hidden when the wings are closed. The bill and frontal shield of the Northern Jacana is also yellow.
GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT
In North America, jacanas have an essentially tropical distribution, rarely showing up in southern Texas. The Northern Jacana prefers a variety of wetland habitats with emergent vegetation such as shallow marshes, riverbanks, ditches, and oxbow lakes such as those along the Rio Grande in Texas.
MIGRATION
Jacanas in North America are non-migratory, permanent residents of their wetland habitats.
HABITS
Jacanas are often seen in pairs, walking along the edges of marsh vegetation. They sometimes wade into the water, and can also be seen daintily stepping their way through floating vegetation as they forage for insects and other small creatures picked from the surface of the water and vegetation. They are highly territorial, often seen flashing their bright wings and giving raspy calls as they bicker, argue, and even fight using the sharp spurs on their wings as weapons.
CONSERVATION
Although the Northern Jacana only shows up as a rare vagrant to the United States, it is a common, non-threatened bird species throughout most of its range in Mexico and Central America.
INTERESTING FACTS
The Northern Jacana is one of the few North American bird species that are polyandrous (the others being phalarope species); the females take more than one mate, the males incubating the eggs and taking care of the young. Males have evolved adaptations on their wings for holding eggs and young while females are larger in size. Females will also kill the young of other females to mate with the male. These behaviors may have evolved to offset high rates of egg loss.