For the Melbourne suburb, see Jacana, VictoriaJacana is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hume...
.
The
jacanas or
jaçanas (sometimes referred to as Jesus birds or lily trotters) are a group of tropical
waderWaders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s in the
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
Jacanidae. They are found worldwide within the tropical zone. See Etymology below for pronunciation.
They are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat.
For the Melbourne suburb, see Jacana, VictoriaJacana is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hume...
.
The
jacanas or
jaçanas (sometimes referred to as Jesus birds or lily trotters) are a group of tropical
waderWaders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s in the
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
Jacanidae. They are found worldwide within the tropical zone. See Etymology below for pronunciation.
Biology
They are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat. They have sharp bills and rounded wings, and many species also have wattles on their foreheads.
The females are larger than the males; the latter, as in some other wader families like the
phalaropeA phalarope is any of three living species of slender-necked shorebirds in the genus Phalaropus of the bird family Scolopacidae. They are close relatives of the shanks and tattlers, the Actitis and Terek Sandpipers, and also of the turnstones and calidrids...
s, take responsibility for incubation, and some species (notably the Northern Jacana) are
polyandrousPolyandry refers to a form of sexual union, in which a woman is married to two or more husbands at the same time....
. However, adults of both sexes look identical, as with most shorebirds. They construct relatively flimsy nests on floating vegetation, and lay eggs with dark irregular lines on their shells, providing camouflage amongst water weeds.
Their diet consists of
insectInsects are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include more than a million species that are already described. Insects represent more than half of all...
s and other
invertebrateAn invertebrate is an animal without a vertebral column. The group includes 95% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata ....
s picked from the floating vegetation or the water’s surface.
Most species are sedentary, but the Pheasant-tailed Jacana
migratesBird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. These however are usually irregular or in only one direction and are termed variously as nomadism, invasions,...
from the north of its range into peninsular
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and southeast
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
.
Etymology
Jacana is Linnæus'
scientific LatinThe formal system of naming species is called binominal nomenclature , binary nomenclature , or the binomial classification system...
spelling of the Brazilian Portuguese
jaçanã, pronounced , from the
TupiOld Tupi or Classical Tupi is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the native Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who lived close to the sea. It belongs to the Tupi-Guarani language subfamily, and which has a written history spanning the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries...
name of the bird. Anglicized pronunciations include in the UK, and in the US and Australia. American dictionaries also give pronunciations closer to the Portuguese: and
jah-sə-NAH.
Species
FAMILY: JACANIDAE
- Genus: Microparra
- Lesser Jacana
The Lesser Jacana is a species of bird in the Jacanidae family. It is monotypic within the genus Microparra....
- Microparra capensis
- Genus: Actophilornis
Actophilornis is a genus of jacana. It contains two species restricted to Africa and its surrounding islands.* African Jacana, Actophilornis africana* Madagascar Jacana, Actophilornis albinucha...
- African Jacana
The African Jacana is a jacana. The jacanas are a group of waders in the family Jacanidae, which are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat. They are found worldwide within the tropical...
- Actophilornis africana
- Madagascar Jacana
The Madagascar Jacana is a species of bird in the Jacanidae family.It is endemic to Madagascar.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . Downloaded on 28 July 2007....
- Actophilornis albinucha
- Genus: Irediparra
- Comb-crested Jacana
The Comb-crested Jacana , also known as the Lotusbird or Lilytrotter, is the only species of jacana in the genus Irediparra...
- Irediparra gallinacea
- Genus: Hydrophasianus
- Pheasant-tailed Jacana
The Pheasant-tailed Jacana is a jacana in the monotypic genus Hydrophasianus. Jacanas are a group of waders in the family Jacanidae that are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes, their preferred habitat...
- Hydrophasianus chirurgus
- Genus: Metopidius
- Bronze-winged Jacana
The Bronze-winged Jacana, Metopidius indicus, is a jacana. It is the only member of the genus Metopidius. The jacanas are a group of waders in the family Charadriidae, which are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are...
- Metopidius indicus
- Genus: Jacana
Jacana is the genus comprising the two jacanas of the Americas: the Northern Jacana, Jacana spinosa, and the Wattled Jacana, Jacana jacana....
- Northern Jacana
The Northern Jacana or Northern Jaçana is a wader which is a resident breeder from coastal Mexico to western Panama, and on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola...
- Jacana spinosa
- Wattled Jacana
The Wattled Jacana Jacana jacana is a wader which is a resident breeder from western Panama and Trinidad south through most of South America east of the Andes....
- Jacana jacana
External links