Animal
African jacana
The African jacana is a brown bird with very long toes. It walks on floating lily leaves. The father bird keeps the eggs warm and looks after the chicks.
The African jacana is a chestnut-brown water bird with a white throat, a golden chest and a sky-blue patch on its forehead. Its very long toes spread its weight, so it can walk across water lilies and other floating plants. Unusually, the female leaves the eggs to a male, who keeps them warm and raises the chicks.
Actophilornis africanus is a jacana of shallow, plant-covered fresh water across sub-Saharan Africa. It is polyandrous: females mate with several neighboring males, and the males incubate the eggs and rear the young. BirdLife International assessed it as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 22 July 2024, published 2024), with a stable population of about 667,000 mature birds.
Photo: Chris Eason, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the African jacana
The African jacana is a brown bird. Its throat is white and its chest is yellow.
It has a blue patch on its head and very long toes.
The African jacana has a sky-blue bill and a sky-blue shield on its forehead. Its crown and the back of its neck are black, its throat is white, and its upper breast is golden yellow. Its back, wings and lower breast are a dark cinnamon brown.
It is about 23 to 31 centimeters long. Females are heavier than males: a male weighs about 115 to 224 grams and a female about 167 to 290 grams.
BirdLife South Africa's 2025 Red Data Book (Rose and Paul 2025, after Jenni and Kirwan 2020) gives a length of 23 to 31 centimeters and weights of 115 to 224 grams for males and 167 to 290 grams for females. Adults have a sky-blue frontal shield and bill; a black crown, face sides and hindneck; a white throat and foreneck merging into a golden-yellow upper breast; and a dark cinnamon-brown lower breast, wings and back. In flight, the rump, secondaries and underbody look dark maroon and the primaries black.
Immatures have a blackish crown and hindneck, a white stripe over the eye, pale brown upperparts and white underparts with a weak yellowish breast band. The species has no subspecies and is closely related to the Madagascar jacana.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Length
- 0.23 to 0.31 m
- Weight
- 0.12 to 0.29 kg
Lily pads and floating plants
African jacanas live in Africa.
They live on ponds and marshes covered with floating plants.
African jacanas live across Africa south of the Sahara, but not in forest belts or very dry areas. They need shallow fresh water with plants floating on it, especially water lilies, and taller plants near the shore to hide in.
They live on marshes, flooded grassland, ponds, small lakes, dams and the quiet backwaters of slow rivers. Some even use small man-made dams.
The IUCN lists the species as resident in 39 countries and breeding in South Sudan, from Senegal and Mauritania to Ethiopia and south to South Africa, from sea level to 3,000 meters. It needs permanent or seasonally flooded shallow fresh water with floating vegetation, especially water-lilies, for nesting, plus tall emergent plants near the shore for cover; it also uses stagnant marshes, flooded grassland, waterways choked with water-lettuce, water-hyacinth or water-fern, small lakes, dams, ponds and the backwaters of broad slow-flowing rivers (del Hoyo et al. 1996; Urban et al. 1986).
BirdLife South Africa notes it is absent from forest belts and arid zones, and that in the south of its range it is assumed to have benefited from small man-made dams and stock-watering points (Jenni and Kirwan 2020).
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Shallow freshwater wetlands with floating plants across Africa south of the Sahara, away from forest belts and very dry areas. In South Sudan the IUCN lists it as breeding.
Places: South Sudan, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Rep. and 32 more places.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and 40 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Insects from the lily pads
African jacanas eat insects and other small animals.
They pick them off floating leaves.
African jacanas eat mostly insects, such as young dragonflies and bees, and other small animals like worms, spiders, molluscs and crustaceans. Sometimes they eat seeds.
They pick their food from floating plants and from the surface of the water, and they also feed among waterside plants or on dry land at the water's edge. They usually feed alone, in pairs or in family groups.
The IUCN gives a diet mainly of insects, such as dragonfly nymphs and bees (Urban et al. 1986), and worms, plus spiders, crustaceans, molluscs and occasionally seeds (del Hoyo et al. 1996). BirdLife South Africa adds that prey is picked from floating vegetation or the water surface.
It forages among waterside plants or on dry land at the water's edge (Hayman et al. 1986), singly, in pairs or in dispersed family groups (Urban et al. 1986), and occasionally gathers in small, loose flocks. In wet years, more than 1,000 can gather at a single site (Tarboton 2005, cited by BirdLife South Africa).
Did you know?
A jacana dad may carry his chicks under his wings.
In the jacana family, a father may tuck small chicks under his wings and carry them to safety.
NatureWorks (New Hampshire PBS) says that in jacanas a male may carry small chicks beneath his wings while running or flying to safety.
Toes made for walking on plants
A jacana's toes are very, very long.
They help it walk on floating leaves without sinking.
An African jacana's long legs and very long toes spread its weight over a wide area. That lets it walk across floating leaves without breaking through into the water.
Its forehead shield and bill are sky-blue, and its head, neck and chest are black, white and golden.
BirdLife South Africa describes long legs with long, specialized feet and toes that distribute the bird's weight evenly, so it can walk on floating vegetation without breaking through. Jacanas in general have four long toes that spread their weight across lily pads (NatureWorks, New Hampshire PBS).
The frontal shield and bill are sky-blue in adults. Females are heavier than males (167 to 290 grams against 115 to 224).
Fathers in charge
The mother jacana lays the eggs. Then the father keeps them warm.
The father looks after the chicks too.
African jacanas nest on floating plants, such as water lilies. The nest is a simple pad of water plants. A female lays 3 or 4 eggs, which are pale with brown, beige or olive spots and blotches.
Then the male takes over. He keeps the eggs warm for about 24 days and guards the chicks, which can walk soon after hatching. They fly at 28 to 35 days old and are fully independent after about 40 days.
The nest is usually a simple, partly submerged pad of aquatic vegetation, or a small floating raft on deeper water (IUCN, after del Hoyo et al. 1996). Where invasive coypu have destroyed water-lilies, jacanas can switch to less stable floating mats such as the exotic water-fern Salvinia. Breeding can happen in any month on permanent wetlands, but only in the wet season where wetlands are seasonal.
BirdLife South Africa gives a clutch of 3 to 4 eggs, incubation by the male averaging 24 days, precocial chicks closely guarded by the male, fledging at 28 to 35 days and the end of care after 40 days. More than one male may incubate and raise chicks in the same nest, and he may not be their biological father.
One female, several males
A female jacana can have more than one partner.
The father birds look after the nests.
African jacana females mate with several males whose territories are next to each other. Each male keeps his own territory, where he nests, feeds and raises chicks.
African jacanas move around as water levels change, and they can travel long distances after rain. On one big floodplain in South Africa, there are no jacanas in dry years but several hundred in wet years. Sometimes they gather in small, loose flocks, and in very wet years more than 1,000 may come together at one wetland.
The species is polyandrous: males hold nesting, breeding, foraging and chick-rearing territories, and females mate with several adjacent males (IUCN, after del Hoyo et al. 1996). In jacanas generally, a male may carry small chicks beneath his wings while running or flying to safety (NatureWorks, New Hampshire PBS).
It is nomadic with changing water levels, some birds travelling several kilometers between suitable habitats (IUCN); BirdLife South Africa calls it generally resident but able to move large distances in response to rainfall. On South Africa's 16,000-hectare Nyl floodplain, jacanas are absent in dry years and number several hundred in wet years (W. Tarboton, cited by BirdLife South Africa).
Did you know?
A jacana can walk across floating leaves without sinking.
An African jacana's very long toes spread its weight, so it can walk on floating leaves without breaking through.
Long legs and long, specialized toes distribute the bird's weight evenly over floating vegetation (BirdLife South Africa).
Wetlands matter
There are many African jacanas.
They need wetlands with floating plants.
The African jacana is listed as least concern. There are about 1 million of them, and their numbers seem steady.
In some places, wetlands are lost when they are drained, flooded for dams or overgrazed by farm animals. In South Africa, people count waterbirds, including jacanas, at wetlands twice a year to see how they are doing.
BirdLife International assessed Actophilornis africanus as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 22 July 2024, published 2024): extremely large range; about 1,000,000 individuals (Wetlands International 2023), roughly 667,000 mature birds; stable over three generations (15.6 years); generation length 5.2 years. Local threats are wetland loss and degradation through flooding by hydroelectric projects, drainage and overgrazing (del Hoyo et al. 1996).
In South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, the 2025 Red Data Book also lists it as Least Concern. Twice-yearly Coordinated Waterbird Counts suggested a decline, but it was not significant over three generations, and the nomadic habits of the species make trends hard to measure (BirdLife South Africa).
IUCN Red List
How is the african jacana doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
Amazing facts
-
A jacana can walk across floating leaves without sinking.
An African jacana's very long toes spread its weight, so it can walk on floating leaves without breaking through.
Long legs and long, specialized toes distribute the bird's weight evenly over floating vegetation (BirdLife South Africa).
-
In jacana families, the father keeps the eggs warm.
After the female lays the eggs, the male African jacana keeps them warm and raises the chicks.
Once the eggs are laid, the male takes over incubation, foraging and chick-rearing (BirdLife South Africa).
-
A jacana dad may carry his chicks under his wings.
In the jacana family, a father may tuck small chicks under his wings and carry them to safety.
NatureWorks (New Hampshire PBS) says that in jacanas a male may carry small chicks beneath his wings while running or flying to safety.
-
In wet years, lots of jacanas can gather in one place.
In wet years, more than 1,000 African jacanas can gather at one wetland.
African jacanas can congregate in numbers above 1,000 at a single site during wet years (Tarboton 2005, cited by BirdLife South Africa).
Words to know
- jacana
- a water bird with very long toes that walks on floating plants
- frontal shield
- a patch of hard skin on a bird's forehead, joined to its bill
- polyandry
- a mating system in which one female has several male partners
- incubate
- to keep eggs warm until they hatch
- precocial
- able to walk and feed soon after hatching
- nomadic
- moving from place to place instead of staying in one home
Discovery challenge
-
What does an African jacana walk on?
What does an African jacana walk across to find food?
Which surface is the African jacana adapted to walk on?
- Floating leaves
- Tree branches
- Sand dunes
Show the answer
Floating leaves
Floating leaves, like lily pads!
Floating leaves such as water lilies; its long toes spread its weight.
Floating vegetation, especially water-lilies; elongated toes distribute its weight (IUCN; BirdLife South Africa).
-
Who keeps jacana eggs warm?
Which parent keeps African jacana eggs warm?
Which sex incubates in the African jacana?
- The father
- The mother
- Nobody
Show the answer
The father
The father!
The male keeps them warm for about 24 days and raises the chicks.
The male; incubation averages 24 days (BirdLife South Africa).
-
What do African jacanas mostly eat?
What makes up most of an African jacana's diet?
Which prey dominates the diet of Actophilornis africanus?
- Insects
- Fish
- Fruit
Show the answer
Insects
Insects!
Mostly insects, plus worms, spiders, molluscs and crustaceans.
Mainly insects such as dragonfly nymphs and bees, plus worms, spiders, crustaceans and molluscs (IUCN).
-
Which is bigger, a mother jacana or a father jacana?
In African jacanas, which is heavier?
How do the sexes of the African jacana compare in weight?
- The female
- The male
- They are always the same
Show the answer
The female
The mother is bigger.
The female: about 167 to 290 grams, against 115 to 224 grams for a male.
Females 167 to 290 grams, males 115 to 224 grams (BirdLife South Africa).
Places where you might see it
-
Watch
Country
South Africa
South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. A high plateau covers most of it, about 63.5 million people (2026) live there, and it has 12 official languages and three capital cities.
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Watch
Country
Kenya
Kenya is a country in East Africa, crossed by the equator. It has the snow-capped Mount Kenya, the deep Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria and a long Indian Ocean coast, and about 54 million people live there, many of them speaking Swahili.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate sub-Saharan Africa, where African jacanas live.
- Explain how long toes help a jacana walk on floating plants.
- Describe how male African jacanas care for the eggs and chicks.
- Explain why wetlands with floating plants matter to jacanas.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a bird with very long toes be able to walk where others would sink?
- What other animals do you know where the father looks after the young?
- Why might jacanas move to new places when water levels change?
Try at home or in class
- Press a fingertip and then a flat hand into a tray of flour or sand. Which sinks in less? Talk about how a jacana's long toes spread its weight.
Key vocabulary: jacana, frontal shield, polyandry, incubate, precocial, nomadic
Where these facts come from
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- Actophilornis africanus (BirdLife International, assessed 22 July 2024, published 2024) , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Actophilornis africanus: population, ecology and threats text , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Actophilornis africanus: IUCN Red List global assessment record (BirdLife International 2024), IUCN checklist on GBIF , GBIF
- African Jacana (Rose and Paul 2025, The 2025 Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini) , BirdLife South Africa
- Jacanidae (NatureWorks) , New Hampshire PBS
- File:African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus).jpg (Lake Panic, Kruger National Park, South Africa, 6 February 2007, Chris Eason) , Wikimedia Commons
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.