Wattled Jacana

• It has reversed sex roles: the female is larger, defends the territory and keeps a harem of up to four or five males, each incubating his own clutch.
• The male incubates by holding two eggs under each wing against his breast, and carries the chicks the same way; with that load he cannot fly and has to walk them to safety.
• A study in Panama found that the male was the sole incubator in all 515 clutches observed and the sole carer of the chicks in 97% of cases.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Freshwater wetlands with plenty of floating vegetation in South America east of the Andes, plus western Panama and Trinidad. It is the only jacana with such a wide range

Size at birth

The chicks are precocial: they leave the nest within hours and feed themselves almost at once

Sexual maturity

Between one and two years

Gestation / incubation

22-28 days of incubation, by the male alone

Litter / clutch size

4 brown eggs with black markings, laid in a floating nest built by the male

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List (evaluación de 2019); Birds of the World / Cornell Lab; Emlen y Wrege 2004, Animal Behaviour (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute); Dallas World Aquarium; Animal Diversity Web

Best time: All year round; breeding usually coincides with the rainy season