Jacana

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For the Melbourne suburb, see Jacana, Victoria.

Jacanas
Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea)
Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Jacanidae
Stejneger, 1885
Species

The jacanas (commonly referred to as Jesus birds) are a group of tropical waders in the family Jacanidae. They are found worldwide within the tropical zone.

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.

The females are larger than the males; the latter, as in some other wader families like the phalaropes take responsibility for incubation, and some species (notably the Northern Jacana) are polyandrous. However, adults of both sexes look identical, as with most shorebirds.

Its diet consists of insects and other invertebrates picked from the floating vegetation or the water’s surface.

Most species are sedentary, but the Pheasant-tailed Jacana migrates from the north of its range into peninsular India and southeast Asia.

[edit] About the name

Jacana is Linnæus' scientific Latin misspelling of the Brazilian Portuguese jaçanã (from a Tupi name of the bird), whose pronunciation is approximately [ža.sa.náN].

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