The northern jacana or northern jaçana (Jacana spinosa) is a wader which is known as a resident breeder from coastal Mexico to western Panama, and on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola in the Caribbean. It is sometimes known to breed in Texas, United States, and has also been recorded on several occasions as a vagrant in Arizona. The jacanas are a group of wetland birds, 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. In Jamaica, this bird is also known as the 'Jesus bird', as it appears to walk on water.

Taxonomy

The northern jacana was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the coots in the genus Fulica and coined the binomial name Fulica spinosa. Linnaeus based his account on the "spur-winged water hen" that had been described and illustrated in 1743 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. Edwards had borrowed a specimen from the collector Hans Sloane that had been preserved in alcohol. Edwards mistakenly believed his specimen had been collected near the city of Cartagena in northern Colombia but this was an error as the species is not present there. The type locality has therefore been redefined as Panama. The northern jacana is now placed together with the wattled jacana in the genus Jacana that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The species is treated as monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The proposed races violacea, gymnostoma and lowi are not recognised. The genus name is from the Portuguese word Jaçana for the wattled jacana, which is in turn derived from the Tupi name Yassānā or Yahānā for a noisy waterbird. The specific epithet spinosa is Latin meaning "thorny", from spina meaning "thorn".

Description

thumb|left|Showing the pale yellow-green wing feathers

The northern jacana is medium-sized wader with long legs and elongated toes. It measures in overall length. The female is significantly larger than the male: breeding females average compared to for the male. It has a chestnut-maroon body with a black head, neck and breast. The bill is bright yellow as is the fleshy shield at the base of the forehead. The upper mandible has a white base. When in flight, its yellowish-green primary and secondary wing feathers are visible. Also visible are yellow bony spurs on the leading edge of the wings, which it can use to defend itself and its young. Young jacana chicks are covered in down and have patterns of orange, browns, black and some white on them. Older chicks are gray and have brownish upper parts. Juveniles have a white supercilium and white lores.

Distribution and habitat

The northern jacana ranges from Mexico to Panama, although it occasionally visits the southern United States, with vagrants being seen in places such as Arizona. It lives on floating vegetation in swamps, marshes, and ponds. It also consumes snails, worms, small crabs, fish, mollusks, and seeds. The jacana competes with birds of a similar diet like the sora.

Breeding

The northern jacana is unusual among birds in having a polyandrous breeding system. A female jacana lives in a territory that encompasses the territories of 1–4 males. A male forms a social bond with a female who will keep other females out of the territory. These bonds between the female and her males remain throughout the year, even outside of the breeding season. These relationships last until a male or female is replaced. but typically the jacana has a simultaneous polyandrous mating system. That is the female will mate with several males a day or form bonds with more than one male at a time. If water levels remain constant, jacanas can breed year round. A male may create several nests at different sites and the female may choose one or find a site of her own in the territory. A female may sometimes shade and squat over the eggs but rarely incubate them. The males continues to incubate the remaining eggs while brooding the hatched chicks. When all the eggs have hatched, the male will dispose of the remaining egg shells. It will also lead the chicks away from the nest within the next 24 hours.

References

  • Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater
  • 1840s illustration by P. Oudart, titled as "Parra cordifera (Lesson)".