The Story
I photographed this Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana) at the Hacienda El Triunfo Private Nature Reserve, near Honda, Tolima, Colombia, in October 2019. Its long toes and claws let it walk across floating vegetation. Females are larger than males and may keep up to four or five male mates at a time. The male incubates the eggs in a floating nest, holding two eggs between each wing and his breast. It has a red, coot-like frontal shield and wattle, and in flight it shows greenish yellow flight feathers. IUCN lists it as Least Concern, with a stable population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800. In 2020 the BIO Alas, Cantos y Colores expedition repeated Frank Chapman’s 1913 bird survey at El Triunfo, working with local communities and laying out a birding route for visitors.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana) belongs to the family Jacanidae (Jacanas) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List