Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa spinosa) immature

24 January 2009, CATIE Botanical Garden, Costa Rica CATIE is the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center. http://www.catie.ac.cr/magazin_ENG.asp?CodIdioma=ENG The Jacanidae are an interesting assemblage of tropical water birds with extraordinary long toes and claws which allow them to spread their weight so they can walk on lily pads and other floating vegetation. The name "Jacana" is actually a Portuguese language word based on the Tupi Indian name for the bird. It supposedly should be pronounced Zha-seh-NAH but very few people pronounce it that way. See: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/birdname.htm A poll conducted by one web site found that most people pronounce it Jah-KA-nah. http://10000birds.com/jacana-pronunciation-poll.htm ...but that is out of a sample size of only 66 participants. It is often spelled Jaçana so the "c" should probably be soft. My recommendation is to abandon this odious name entirely and use an alternate such as "Lilly Trotter" or the more evocative "Lotus Bird." The Northern Jacana is polyandrous with females defending territories that may have multiple nests and multiple males who incubate the eggs and care for the young. They are very common at CATIE and we saw both adults and immatures. This is an immature. Three subspecies are recognized. This is the nominate southernmost mainland race which ranges from Belize to Panama and which is sometimes called the "Central American Jacana." However it differs from other races in minimally smaller size and the three named races are doubtfully valid. Panasonic Lumix LZ5 / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30X WA hand-held (no adapter)