Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS

THE JACANAS

(Family Jacanida)

Of Brazilian origin the name Jacana * has come to be universally applied to a small, well-marked tropical group of marsh-frequenting birds with rather long legs and a general Rail-like appearance, but which are now conceded to be most closely related to the Plovers. The most marked characteristic is the enormously long toes and claws, especially that of the hind toe, which is longer than the toe itself, which enables them to walk with ease over the water lilies and other aquatic plants growing in ponds and marshes.

They are small birds, the largest not much exceeding a foot in length when in the non-breeding plumage, and the smallest but half this, and they have a rather short neck, small head, and a moderately long bill which may or may not be provided with a frontal shield or lappet, while the wrist joint is armed with a usually strong spur. The plumage is rather handsomely colored, showing much of black, brown, golden, and white, the first often glossed with purplish or greenish, and relieved by dashes of greenish yellow; in some there is a marked difference between the breeding plumage and that worn at other seasons.

The Jacanas are very widely distributed, ranging through middle America and northern South America, reappearing in Africa south of the Tropic of Cancer, and thence spreading through the Indian and Malay peninsulas to Australia, Borneo, and the Philippines.

Their habits are everywhere very similar, as they frequent slow-flowing streams, ponds, and marshes, running with ease over the lily pads and feeding on seeds and tender bits of vegetation, as well as insects and crustaceans. Some of them seem to take pleasure in displaying the wings, which they do by raising them over their heads, and Hudson states of the Common Jacana of the Plata district (Jacana jacana), that”when several of these birds live in company, occasionally they all in a moment leave their feeding, and with quick, excited notes, and clustering together in a close group, go through a singular and very pretty performance, all together holding their wings outstretched and agitated, some with a rapid fluttering, others with a slow-moving, leisurely motion like that of a butterfly sunning itself.

The performance over, the birds peaceably scatter again.”The nests of the Jacanas are very simple structures, placed usually on masses of floating weeds amongst reeds or sometimes on the ground near the water. They lay very glossy eggs, usually four in number, of a buff, yellowish brown, or olive ground-color and more or less thickly spotted with brown, though in some cases the spots are absent.

The Jacanas number about a dozen species disposed among some five or more genera, of which the typical one — Jacana — is confined to the New World and is distinguished by the presence of an upright, leaf-like, fleshy wattle on the forehead. Of these the Mexican Jacana (/. spinosa) is found from the lower Rio Grande valley in Texas throughout the whole of middle America and the Greater Antilles.

It attains a length of about nine inches and has the upper parts, including the neck and chest, of a greenish or purplish black, the lower parts of a rich purplish chestnut, and the flight-feathers of the wings a clear greenish yellow or apple-green color. The bill is bright yellow and the wattle in life is said to be red or orange.

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