Wattled Jacana Jacana jacana Scientific name definitions

The Wattled Jacana is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics of South America and is common in just about any permanent and seasonally flooded freshwater wetlands. Floating vegetation is the limiting substrate for this species and will not occur in any wetland where this is absent. It uses its greatly elongated toes and claws to distribute its weight when walking on this notably submissive vegetation while foraging primarily for insects. The Wattled Jacana is highly polyandrous with females defending and breeding with 1-3+ males, which in turn each defend a small territory. Their nests are constructed to meet the needs of their floating habitat, and are often partially submerged. It is polytypic with six recognized subspecies differing in the amount of black in their plumage. Some authors have considered the Wattled Jacana to be conspecific with the similar Northern Jacana with which it narrowly overlaps in Panama. Considering that the local race of Wattled Jacana is the most phenotypically different race of its species from the Northern Jacana with no apparent integradation, it is best to treat these as separate species.

21–25 cm; male 81–118 g, female 129–151 g (1 Dunning, J. B., Jr. (2008). CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses. Second edition. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA. Close , 2 Salvador, S. A., and A. G. Di Giacomo (2014). Datos de pesos de aves argentinas. Parte 3. Historia Natural 4(2):63–88. Close ); wingspan 40 cm. Red bi-lobed frontal comb or shield and conspicuous rictal lappets contrast with yellow bill and black head; blackish to reddish chestnut-brown above ; yellow to pale greenish-yellow flight feathers with dark brown to black tips, broader distally, and outermost edges of outermost primaries, primary-coverts, alula and carpal area; bright yellow carpal spur. Female significantly larger and heavier than male, often with bluish caste to upper edge of comb. Juvenile very similar to that of J. spinosa, but has small frontal shield bi-lobed, rather than tri-lobed; lacks rictal wattles. Races vary from blackish above and below in <em>hypomelaena</em> to rich chestnut-brown above and black below in <em>intermedia</em> , although some forms have chestnut flanks and vent, or black feathers mixed with chestnut in scapulars. Race <em>peruviana</em> resembles J. spinosa most closely, as is least melanistic race. Immature hypomelaena differs from immatures of other races and that of J. spinosa in having darker brown back and black flanks, axillaries and underwing-coverts.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

• Northern x Wattled Jacana (hybrid) Jacana spinosa x jacana

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Permanent and seasonally flooded freshwater wetlands with floating and floating-emergent vegetation. Also forages in shallow water and in adjacent cropland and grassland . In Guyana, nests in ditches, canals and small ponds, and regularly feeds on adjacent rice fields. Recorded to 930 m in S Venezuela (4 Crease, A. (2009). Avian range extensions from the southern headwaters of the río Caroní, Gran Sabana, Bolívar, Venezuela. Cotinga 31:5–19. Close ), with a recent record at 3900 m in the Colombian E Andes (5 Williams, R. (2016). Neotropical notebook. Neotropical Birding. 18: 45–52. Close ).

Sedentary, with local movements during dry season, when many marshes dry out. Occurs in flocks outside breeding season. Recent records (Nov 2004 and Jan 2006) at two well-separated localities in Nicaragua, involving multiple individuals, suggest either recent range expansion, or that species was previously overlooked, but might also indicate extreme wandering (3 McCrary, J. K., W. J. Arendt, L. Chavarría, L. J. López, P. A., Somarriba, P. O. Boudrault, A. L. Cruz, F. J. Muñoz, and D. J. Mackler (2009). A contribution to Nicaraguan ornithology, with a focus on the pine-oak ecoregion Cotinga 31:72–78. Close ).

Primarily insects (both adults and larvae) and other invertebrates, including small molluscs, but also tiny fish and amphibians (6 Pacheco Nunes, A. and Piratelli, A. (2005). Comportamento da jaçanã (Jacana jacana Linnaeus, 1766) (Charadriiformes, Jacanidae) em uma lagoa urbana no município de Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Atualidades Ornitológicas. 126: 17. Close ); apart from seeds and some fruit, most plant material may be ingested accidentally, but at a rice plantation in Guyana 20% of diet consisted of seeds. Prey gleaned from the surface of floating and emergent vegetation and picked from roots of floating plants upturned by bird, usually searched for while on the move, but occasionally uses watch-and-wait method (6 Pacheco Nunes, A. and Piratelli, A. (2005). Comportamento da jaçanã (Jacana jacana Linnaeus, 1766) (Charadriiformes, Jacanidae) em uma lagoa urbana no município de Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Atualidades Ornitológicas. 126: 17. Close ), and will also consume ticks in fur of capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) (7 Sazima, I. (2011). Cleaner birds: a worldwide overview. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 19(1): 32–47. Close , 8 Sazima, C., P. Jordano, P. R. Guimarães, S. F. Dos Reis, and I. Sazima (2012). Cleaning associations between birds and herbivorous mammals in Brazil: structure and complexity. Auk 29:36–43. Close ). Spends up to 80% of time foraging (6 Pacheco Nunes, A. and Piratelli, A. (2005). Comportamento da jaçanã (Jacana jacana Linnaeus, 1766) (Charadriiformes, Jacanidae) em uma lagoa urbana no município de Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Atualidades Ornitológicas. 126: 17. Close ).

Generally considered to be very similar to J. spinosa, most frequently giving noisy “check” or “kak” calls. Six different vocal types have been identified as follows: (1) food location, to alert other birds to an abundant source of prey; (2) alarm, alerting other individuals to potential danger; (3) chick-gathering call, again in alarm; (4) agonistic encounters, between territory holders; (5) chick calls, to adults; and (6) pre-copulatory calls, given especially by females (6 Pacheco Nunes, A. and Piratelli, A. (2005). Comportamento da jaçanã (Jacana jacana Linnaeus, 1766) (Charadriiformes, Jacanidae) em uma lagoa urbana no município de Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Atualidades Ornitológicas. 126: 17. Close ).

Season potentially year-round at some localities, but seasonal in others, e.g. Sept–Nov in S Brazil (6 Pacheco Nunes, A. and Piratelli, A. (2005). Comportamento da jaçanã (Jacana jacana Linnaeus, 1766) (Charadriiformes, Jacanidae) em uma lagoa urbana no município de Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Atualidades Ornitológicas. 126: 17. Close ). Polyandrous; females defend and breed with 1–5 (9 Emlen, S.T., Wrege, P.H. and Webster, M.S. (1998). Cuckoldry as a cost of polyandry in the sex-role-reversed wattled jacana, Jacana jacana. Proc. Royal Soc. London (Ser. B Biol. Sci.). 265: 2359–2364. Close ) neighbouring, territorial males (at study site in Panama, 75% of females had two or more mates) (9 Emlen, S.T., Wrege, P.H. and Webster, M.S. (1998). Cuckoldry as a cost of polyandry in the sex-role-reversed wattled jacana, Jacana jacana. Proc. Royal Soc. London (Ser. B Biol. Sci.). 265: 2359–2364. Close ); number of mates highly variable and apparently depends on size of habitat and especially on quality, with more and smaller territories (just 40 m in diameter) (9 Emlen, S.T., Wrege, P.H. and Webster, M.S. (1998). Cuckoldry as a cost of polyandry in the sex-role-reversed wattled jacana, Jacana jacana. Proc. Royal Soc. London (Ser. B Biol. Sci.). 265: 2359–2364. Close ) occurring in areas of dense, mixed-species mats of floating vegetation. Females vigorously exclude other females and assist their mates to drive out intruders. Few details reported concerning breeding behaviour, but sex role reversal occurs and species is generally assumed to have similar behavioural traits and ecology to those of J. spinosa. Nest small, often partially submerged, collection of stems and aquatic vegetation. Clutch four yellowish-buff eggs  with dark markings; incubation  28 days; incubation and chick-care by male; downy chicks white below with cinnamon and brown stripes above; male accompanies, broods and defends precocial chicks  (which are capable of submerging virtually completely underwater if danger threatens) (10 Bosque, C. and Herrera, E.A. (1999). “Snorkeling” by the chicks of the Wattled Jacana Wilson Bull.. 111(2): 262–265. Close , 11 Ruiz-Esparza Aguilar, J.M., Alves dos Santos, O. and Almeida, B.J.M. (2009). Comportamento para camuflagem de filhotes de jaçanã (Jacana jacana) (Charadriiformes: Jacanidae) em uma área de restinga em Barra dos Coqueiros, SE. Atualidades Ornitológicas. 151: 12–13. Close ), but does not feed them; fledging age and age of sexual maturity assumed to be as in J. spinosa. Male does not copulate during incubation and for first several weeks of brood care; female lays replacement clutches and clutches for other males with as few as eight days between clutches. Study in Panama reveals that male frequently incubates eggs and tends young that are not his own: 41% of broods (17% of chicks) in polyandrous associations involving two males, and 74% of broods (29% of chicks) where female has more than two mates (9 Emlen, S.T., Wrege, P.H. and Webster, M.S. (1998). Cuckoldry as a cost of polyandry in the sex-role-reversed wattled jacana, Jacana jacana. Proc. Royal Soc. London (Ser. B Biol. Sci.). 265: 2359–2364. Close ). Results from same study indicate that competition for territorial space is intense and many individuals of both sexes do not breed in a given year, while females and male territory holders are larger, heavier and more ornamented than adult floaters of same sex; furthermore, larger and heavier females have more mates than smaller females (12 Emlen, S.T. and Wrege, P.H. (2004). Size dimorphism, intrasexual competition, and sexual selection in Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana), a sex-role-reversed shorebird in Panama. Auk. 121(2): 391–403. Close ). Following removal of resident female, replacement females from nearby commonly kills chicks , especially those three weeks old or younger. In Guyana only eight of 52 nests (15%) produced one or more young.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Dependent on preservation of suitable wetlands. Development of rice production, as in Guyana, can produce additional habitat or can cause its destruction, but invariably leads to greatly increased human disruption of breeding efforts. Development of grazing and pasture lands, and associated small reservoirs, has increased habitat over much of South America. Formation of L Gatun in Panama created immense amount of new habitat for local race hypomelaena. Attempts to drain wetlands constitute a threat in many areas, but, despite this, overall species not seriously threatened over most of distribution.