Bronze wing

Appearance

Bronze-winged jacanas are rail-like, large, short tailed birds that appear dark at a distance except for the supercilium. They are 29 cm in length. The sexes are similar but the females are slightly larger than the males. The wings are bronzy brown with a green sheen and have a reduced tubercular carpal spur. The head, neck and breast are black and contrast with the broad white supercilium that runs from over the eye to the back of the neck. The lower back and tail coverts are chestnut. The tail is stubby and reddish brown with black terminal band. The greenish yellow bill has a red-base to the upper mandible. A lappet or frontal shield extends up over the forehead and is reddish purple. The legs are greenish. The toes are long and the straight and the elongated nail on the hind toe is longer than the toe. Downy chicks are light brown with a dark stripe running down the nape. Young birds have brown upperparts, a rufous crown, white underparts, a buff foreneck, an undeveloped frontal shield, and may have a dull supercilium. Adults can be confused at a distance with the common moorhen and with the watercock and while young can appear similar to the young of the pheasant-tailed jacana, they lack the black necklace seen in that species.

Distribution

The species is widely distributed across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia mainly in low elevations. Both this species and the pheasant-tailed jacana can occur in the same habitat. It is sedentary apart from seasonal dispersal in response to drought and rains. They are able to use wetlands covered in introduced weeds such as water hyacinth and make use of the cover provided by ''Ipomoea aquatica'' when breeding.

Behavior

Bronze-winged jacanas are found singly or in pairs foraging on aquatic vegetation. They balance on their long legs and long toes, and feed on plant material , insects and other invertebrates picked from the floating vegetation or the water's surface. Call is a wheezy piping ''seek-seek-seek'' given mostly in alarm. When threatened they sometimes hide by submerging themselves. The breeding season starts after the rains . Males defend territories from other males with open wing and neck stretched displays which can escalate to pecking. The territory maintenance activities are at a maximum from around 9 to 11 AM. The nest is a small platform of stems and leaves of ''Pistia'', ''Nymphoides'', ''Hydrilla'', and ''Eichhornia'' placed on a mat of vegetation but eggs may also be laid directly on the leaf of a lotus plant. The usual clutch is four, the eggs are very conical, glossy brown with irregular black zig-zag markings. Incubation and care of the young is entirely left to males. The eggs hatch in 29 days. Predation rates of eggs are high, up to 94% were lost in one study to various predators including birds and turtles. Young chicks may be sheltered between the wings and carried to safety. They become independent of their father when they are about ten weeks old.

Nematode parasites, ''Gongylonema indica'' and ''Stellocaronema alii'' and the feather louse ''Rallicola indicus'' have been described from specimens of the bronze-winged jacana.

Habitat

The species is widely distributed across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia mainly in low elevations. Both this species and the pheasant-tailed jacana can occur in the same habitat. It is sedentary apart from seasonal dispersal in response to drought and rains. They are able to use wetlands covered in introduced weeds such as water hyacinth and make use of the cover provided by ''Ipomoea aquatica'' when breeding.Bronze-winged jacanas are found singly or in pairs foraging on aquatic vegetation. They balance on their long legs and long toes, and feed on plant material , insects and other invertebrates picked from the floating vegetation or the water's surface. Call is a wheezy piping ''seek-seek-seek'' given mostly in alarm. When threatened they sometimes hide by submerging themselves. The breeding season starts after the rains . Males defend territories from other males with open wing and neck stretched displays which can escalate to pecking. The territory maintenance activities are at a maximum from around 9 to 11 AM. The nest is a small platform of stems and leaves of ''Pistia'', ''Nymphoides'', ''Hydrilla'', and ''Eichhornia'' placed on a mat of vegetation but eggs may also be laid directly on the leaf of a lotus plant. The usual clutch is four, the eggs are very conical, glossy brown with irregular black zig-zag markings. Incubation and care of the young is entirely left to males. The eggs hatch in 29 days. Predation rates of eggs are high, up to 94% were lost in one study to various predators including birds and turtles. Young chicks may be sheltered between the wings and carried to safety. They become independent of their father when they are about ten weeks old.

Nematode parasites, ''Gongylonema indica'' and ''Stellocaronema alii'' and the feather louse ''Rallicola indicus'' have been described from specimens of the bronze-winged jacana.