African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus)

Cover image of African Jacana by Johan Heyns – Nylsvlei Nature Reserve, Limpopo – BirdPix No. 208418

Jacanas belong to the family JACANIDAE. They are noted for their elongated toes and claws that allow them to spread their weight while foraging on floating or semi-emergent aquatic vegetation. They have sharp bills and rounded wings, many species also have wattles, frontal shields, and lappets on their heads. Some species also have carpal spurs on the wing. Most (except the Lesser Jacana) are polyandrous breeders and females are larger than the males. There are 8 existing species from 6 genera including 2 African species and 1 from Madagascar. The family is distributed across the tropical regions of the world.

Identification

African Jacanas are conspicuous and easily recognised. Females are almost twice the size of males but the sexes are otherwise alike.

Adults are strikingly plumaged. They have a black crown and hind neck and the sides of the face, chin and throat are white, turning golden-yellow on the chest. The mantle, back, rump, tail, wings, and belly are rich chestnut. The wings are long and rounded with conspicuous black flight feathers. The bill and fleshy frontal shield are pale to bright, powdery blue, the eyes are dark brown and the legs and feet are grey.

Juveniles differ from the adults in having a brownish-black crown and hind neck, with a narrow white supercilium. The back, wings and tail are pale brown and the throat, breast and belly are white. The sides of the breast are washed yellow. The bill is pale grey and the smaller frontal shield is also grey (not blue). The legs and feet are pale grey.

Adult birds are distinctive and unlikely to be mistaken for another species. Juveniles though, are easily confused with the adult Lesser Jacana (Microparra capensis) but are much larger, with a small frontal shield and no white trailing edge to the secondaries.

Status and Distribution

The African Jacana is a common to locally abundant resident and local nomad. It is restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, occurring from Senegal and Mauritania in west Africa, east to Ethiopia and Somalia, and south into the subtropical regions of southern Africa. The African Jacana is largely absent from continuous stretches of lowland forest and from most arid regions. However, it extends into some arid places along larger river systems such as the Orange River.

In southern Africa, it is mainly concentrated in the subtropical north and east. It also occurs in a narrow band down the east coast into the Western Cape where it is less numerous. The scattered records elsewhere demonstrate a high incidence of vagrancy, particularly in immatures, due to its nomadic tendencies.

The African Jacana is not threatened, its present-day distribution remains unchanged from 100 years ago. Although not currently at risk, the African Jacana could become threatened in the future due to ongoing wetland destruction.

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Habitat

The African Jacana is always associated with aquatic habitats. It frequents shallow, permanent and seasonal freshwater wetlands, including floodplains, lagoons, seasonal pans, and the margins of slow-flowing rivers in warm to hot areas. It favours habitats with floating and emergent vegetation especially water lilies (Nymphaea spp), but also Willowherb (Ludwigia stolonifera), pondweeds (Potamogeton spp) and hornwarts (Ceratophyllum spp).

Vagrant birds that move beyond the normal breeding range may be found on estuaries, the bare margins of dams and pans, and at sewage works, where there may be no suitable breeding sites.

Behaviour

The African Jacana is usually encountered in pairs and sometimes in loose flocks. They are conspicuous and highly vocal birds and are active throughout the day.

They are most well-known for their ability to walk on floating vegetation, made possible by their extremely long toes and long, straight claws. They walk with a characteristic, high-stepping gait. African Jacanas sometimes need to run across floating plants to avoid sinking and will swim very occasionally when plants provide insufficient support.

Like many other waterbirds, the African Jacana goes through a period of flightless moult during the non-breeding season. This lasts for a few weeks and during this time they behave like chicks and will dive and even swim underwater to avoid danger.

The African jacana flies well, usually low over the water with quick, irregular wing beats and legs trailing behind at an angle. Dispersal and long-distance flights between wetlands mainly happen at night. They are nomadic due to their reliance on floating vegetation for feeding and nesting and are highly mobile in response to fluctuating water levels at seasonal wetlands.

African Jacanas forage throughout the day. Most foraging is done by pecking while walking, less so while standing or swimming. They walk across floating and emergent vegetation, rapidly pecking at prey. They pull up submerged plant stems and turn up the edge of leaves in their search for food and will sometimes also sprint after insects. Females forage less frequently on floating vegetation than males due to their considerably larger size and are more often seen feeding along shallow margins.

The diet of the African Jacana is largely insectivorous. They mostly eat aquatic insects and their larvae, including water beetles, flies, dragonflies, and aquatic bugs like pond skaters and water boatmen. They also consume bees, grasshoppers, spiders, various worms, small fish, crustaceans, snails and other molluscs. Seeds and waterlily bulbs are eaten on occasion. They sometimes perch on the backs of partly submerged Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) and often feed opportunistically on disturbed insects around large mammals like cattle, buffalo, elephant and hippos wading in the shallows. African Jacanas have also been observed removing ectoparasites and picking flesh from the open wounds of Hippos.

The African Jacana is polyandrous, meaning females mate with multiple males during the breeding season. The female has a harem of males that she provides eggs for and the males are left to build the nest and to perform all parental responsibilities.

Both sexes are strongly territorial. Males fight to establish a dominance hierarchy and to secure breeding territories, as well as to compete for the attention of the female. The female African Jacana defends a larger territory, from which they exclude other females, and which usually includes the nesting territories of multiple males (1 to 7 Males per female territory). The males are solitary nesters, adjacent nests are almost always more than 50 meters apart.

Males attempt to attract the female by calling from a basic platform built by pulling together nearby plant stems. Males may hop up and down while calling to further entice the female. The breeding female copulates frequently through the day, often with multiple males over a 1 or 2 hour period. When a new female takes over a territory she will typically kill any young chicks to force the males to start breeding with her.

The nest is a small, flimsy and waterlogged heap of aquatic plant stems. It is built by the male, on floating vegetation over still water and several platforms may be built before a final one is selected. The nest is often very exposed but may sometimes be well-hidden, especially when placed within the cover of Willowherb (Ludwigia stolonifera) which is favoured for nesting. Additional material is added to the nest heap throughout the incubation period. If water levels rise significantly the eggs may be moved from a sinking nest by pushing the floating egg to a new position.

Eggs are laid throughout the year in the tropics but mainly from November to April in South Africa. The African Jacanas lays remarkably beautiful eggs. They are a deep tan colour, with dark chocolate-coloured markings that look like dribbled lines of paint, crisscrossing the entire egg in an abstract design that differs on each egg. The eggs are Pyriform (pear-shaped) with relatively thick shells and have a highly polished appearance. This glossy look may aid in disguising the eggs with the glare off the water surface and the shiny leaves of surrounding vegetation. Normally 4 eggs are laid per clutch, at 1 day intervals. The female lays up to 10 clutches per season. After the female has laid a clutch of eggs she leaves the male, who takes over all parental duties including incubation and chick rearing.

Incubation starts with the third-laid egg and lasts for a period of around 25 days. Since the floating nest is just above the water surface the spot where the eggs lie is often damp. The male keeps the eggs dry and warm when incubating by sliding the eggs under each wing to hold them against the brood-patch on his belly. The male leaves the nest frequently to forage, and on warm days the eggs are regularly left unattended. On very hot days the male will shade the eggs by standing over them rather than incubating them. They are very aggressive to other water birds that approach the nesting area, flying from the nest to attack them vigorously.

Interestingly, for up to 2 days prior to pipping, the chicks communicate with each other by calling from within the egg to synchronise their hatching. The newly hatched young are highly precocial and leave the nest soon after hatching (nidifugous). They are able to feed without parental help and escape danger by diving underwater and swimming to emerge nearby.

Chicks are brooded by the male between his wings and body. They are also carried under his wings with legs dangling, for their first 18 days or so. The young are closely attended by the male for the first 2 weeks, but less so thereafter. They are able to fly at around 40 days old and are left to fend for themselves after 40 to 50 days.

Males can occasionally rear 2 broods per season.

Further Resources

Species text from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Alexander Wirth, Bryan Groom, Dave Rimmer, Frieda Prinsloo, Gregg Darling, Johan Heyns, Lappies Labuschagne, Lia Steen, Malcolm Robinson, Phillip Nieuwoudt, Pieter Cronje and Terry Terblanche is acknowledged.

Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).

Other common names: Grootlangtoon (Afrikaans); iThandaluzibo, uNondwayiza (Zulu); Lelie-loper (Dutch); Jacana d’Afrique, Jacana à poitrine dorée (French); Blaustirn-Blatthühnchen, Jacana (German); Jacana-africana (Portuguese)

A list of bird species in this format is available here.

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2024. African Jacana Actophilornis africanus. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2024/09/25/african-jacana-actophilornis-africanus/

Bird identification, birding

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