The bronze-winged jacana is a jacana. The jacanas are a group of waders in the family Charadriidae, which is identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat. They are found worldwide within the tropical zone. For the origin and pronunciation of the name, see Jacana.
The bronze-winged jacana breeds in India and Southeast Asia. It is quiet apart from the seasonal dispersion. It lays four black-marked brown eggs in a floating nest. The males, as in some other wader families like the phalaropes, take responsibility for incubation.
These are conspicuous and unmistakable birds. They are 29 cm long, but the females are larger than the males. They are mainly black, although the inner wings are very dark brown and the tail is red. There is a striking white eye stripe. The yellow bill extends up as a red coot-like frontal shield, and the legs and very long toes are grey.
Young birds have brown upperparts. Their underparts are white, with a buff foreneck. Â The bronze-winged jacana’s feeds on insects and other invertebrates picked from the floating vegetation or the water’s surface.
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