African Jacana

Although its physical appearance and some visual details could classify the African Jacana in the order of Gruiformes, it actually belongs to the order of Charadriiformes, and it is a monotypic species. A very beautiful water bird of just over 30 cm in height, its elegance immediately catches the eye. Its long, clear blue beak appears even longer because of the frontal plate of the same color. This beautiful blue part of the head is surrounded on each side by a black line that starts from the lores and goes around the eyes. This is followed by a large black line from the crown and down to the bottom of the neck, staying very thin at the level of the nape. The chin, throat, parotids, sides of the nape and upper chest are an immaculate white. The latter part becomes a light golden brown at the bottom. This gives the bird a very slender and elegant profile. The rest of the body is tawny-fawn with quite golden tones in full light. The rump and secondary remiges are slightly darker and the primary remiges are black. The bird's long legs and long fingers are gray-blue. There is no sexual dimorphism, however, the female is larger than the male.
The chick is tawny, striped with light and dark brown on top and white underneath. Its almost as long fingers make it look disproportionate. The juvenile does not have or has little of the blue frontal plate and the beak is not entirely blue. The black part at the back of the head in the adult is light brown in the juvenile and marked by a well-visible white eyebrow. A yellowish golden pectoral band separates the white chest in two. The upper parts are tawny and the lower parts are white.He has adult plumage at the age of one.