African jacana

The African jacanas was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Parra and coined the binomial name Parra africana.{{ cite book | last=Gmelin | first=Johann Friedrich | author-link=Johann Friedrich Gmelin| year=1789 | title=Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=13th | volume=1, Part 2 | language=Latin | location=Lipsiae [Leipzig] | publisher=Georg. Emanuel. Beer | page=709 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2656202 }} Gmelin based his description on that by the English ornithologist John Latham who in 1785 had described and illustrated the species in his A General Synopsis of Birds.{{ cite book | last=Latham | first=John | author-link=John Latham (ornithologist) | year=1785 | title=A General Synopsis of Birds | volume=3, Part 1 | publisher=Printed for Leigh and Sotheby | location=London | page=246 No. 7; Plate 87 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40079021 }} Gmelin and Latham gave the locality as "Africa": this was restricted to Ethiopia in 1915.{{ cite journal | last=Grant | first=C.H.B. | date=1915 | title=On a collection of birds from British East Africa and Uganda, presented to the British Museum by Capt. G.S. Cozens. – Part 1 | journal=Ibis | series=10th | volume=3 | issue=1 | pages=1–76 [59] | doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1915.tb08178.x | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8749837 }}{{ cite book | editor-last=Peters | editor-first=James Lee | editor-link=James L. Peters | year=1934 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=2 | publisher=Harvard University Press | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=226 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483039 }} The African jacana is now placed in the genus Actophilornis that was introduced in 1925 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser.{{ cite journal | last=Oberholser | first=Harry C. | author-link=Harry C. Oberholser | year=1925 | title=A new name for the genus Actophilus Oberholser | journal=Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington | volume=38 | page=90 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34557656 }}{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=August 2022 | title=Buttonquail, thick-knees, sheathbills, plovers, oystercatchers, stilts, painted-snipes, jacanas, Plains-wanderer, seedsnipes | work=IOC World Bird List Version 12.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/buttonquail/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=2 November 2022 }} The genus name combines the Ancient Greek aktē meaning "river bank" or "coastal strand", -philos meaning "-loving" and ornis meaning "bird".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=31 | url=https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n31/mode/1up }}

The species is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

The African jacanas is a conspicuous and unmistakable bird. It measures {{Convert|23|to|31|cm|in|abbr=on}} in overall length. As in other jacanas, the female is on average larger than the male. Males can weigh from {{convert|115|to|224|g|oz|abbr=on}}, averaging {{convert|137|g|oz|abbr=on}} and females from {{convert|167|to|290|g|oz|abbr=on}}, averaging {{convert|261|g|oz|abbr=on}}. Alongside the similarly-sized Madagascar jacana, this appears to be the heaviest jacana species.Jenni, D. A. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.{{cite book |title=CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses |edition=2nd |editor-first=John B. Jr. |editor-last=Dunning |publisher=CRC Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4200-6444-5}} They have chestnut upperparts with black wingtips, rear neck, and eyestripe. The underparts are also chestnut in the adults, only in juveniles they are white with a chestnut belly patch. The blue bill extends up as a coot-like head shield, and the legs and long toes are grey.

African jacanas feed on insects and other invertebrates picked from the floating vegetations or the surface of the water.{{ cite book | last=Jenni | first=D.A. | year=1996 | chapter=Family Jacanidae (Jacanas) | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | title=Handbook of the Birds of the World | volume=3: Hoatzin to Auks | location=Barcelona, Spain | publisher=Lynx Edicions | isbn=978-84-87334-20-7 | pages=276–291 [289] | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0003unse/page/289/mode/1up | chapter-url-access=registration }}

African jacanas breed throughout sub-Saharan Africa. It is sedentary apart from seasonal dispersion. It lays four black-marked brown eggs in a floating nest.

The jacana has evolved a highly unusually polyandrous mating system, meaning that one female mates with multiple males and the male alone cares for the chicks. Such a system has evolved due to a combination of two factors: firstly, the lakes that the jacana lives on are so resource-rich that the relative energy expended by the female in producing each egg is effectively negligible. Secondly the jacana, as a bird, lays eggs, and eggs can be equally well incubated and cared for by a parent bird of either sex. This means that the rate-limiting factor of the jacana's breeding is the rate at which the males can raise and care for the chicks. Such a system of females forming harems of males is in direct contrast to the more usual system of leks seen in animals such as stags and grouse, where the males compete and display in order to gain harems of females.

The parent that forms part of the harem is almost always the one that ends up caring for the offspring; in this case, each male jacana incubates and rears a nest of chicks. The male African jacana has therefore evolved some remarkable adaptations for parental care, such as the ability to pick up and carry chicks underneath its wings.{{Cite journal |last=Hustler |first=Kit |date=2002-09-01 |editor-last=Dr W. Richard J. Dean |title=Observations on the breeding biology and behaviour of the Lesser Jacana, Microparra capensis |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00306525.2002.11446733 |journal=Ostrich |volume=73 |issue=3-4 |pages=79–82 |doi=10.1080/00306525.2002.11446733 |issn=0030-6525 |quote=Males sometimes carry young chicks between their wings and flanks (recorded in four species, including the African Jacana Actophilornis africanus).|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |last=Crew |first=Bec |date=2020-05-19 |title=This jacana leg situation is actually adorable |url=https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/creatura-blog/2020/05/this-jacana-leg-situation-is-actually-adorable/ |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=Australian Geographic |language=en-US}}

African jacana (Actophilornis africanus) Kenya.jpg|Adult, Lake Baringo, Kenya

Actophilornis africana -Kakegawa Kacho-en, Kakegawa, Shizuoka, Japan -chick-8a.jpg|Chick at Kakegawa, Shizuoka, Japan

African jacana (Actophilornis africanus) juvenile.jpg|Juvenile, Lake Baringo, Kenya

Actophilornis africanus MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.2.23.jpg| Actophilornis africanus - MHNT

{{Reflist}}

• African jacana - [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/240.pdf Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q132201}}

African jacana

African jacana

African jacana

African jacana

African jacana

Category:Birds of East Africa