The comb-crested jacana (''Irediparra gallinacea''), also known as the lotusbird or lilytrotter (though these names are sometimes used to describe ''

Jacanidae The jacanas (sometimes referred to as Jesus birds or lily trotters) are a group of tropical waders in the family (biology), family Jacanidae. They are found in the tropical regions around the world. They are noted for their elongated toes and to ...

'' as a whole), is the only species of jacana in the genus ''Irediparra''. Like other jacana species, it is adapted to the floating vegetation of tropical freshwater wetlands.

Description

This species is unmistakable. It has a black crown and hindneck with a fleshy red wattle covering the forehead and forecrown, contrasting with a white face and throat. The comb is pinker in breeding adults, more orange when not breeding. There is a broad black band on the lower breast with white belly. The underwing and flight feathers, which show most prominently in flight, are black. Back and upperwing mainly grey-brown with black primary coverts, rump and tail. The long legs with extremely long toes trail in flight. The male is slightly smaller than the female and measures in length and weighs . The female measures in length and weighs .''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . The wingspan ranges from . Comb-crested jacana (Irediparra gallinacea novaehollandiae) chick Kakadu.jpg, Chick Comb-crested jacana (Irediparra gallinacea novaehollandiae) juvenile Kakadu.jpg, Juvenile Comb-crested jacana (Irediparra gallinacea novaehollandiae) Fogg Dam 2.jpg, Adult

Distribution and habitat

The bird occurs in south-eastern

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, the southern

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pro ...

, north and south-east

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

(Lake Lalili), and northern and eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Its habitat are large freshwater

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s, swamps and lakes with abundant floating vegetation, such as water-lilies or

water hyacinth ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive species, invasive outside its native rang ...

, forming a mat on the water surface which it is able to walk on. Although the species is rare and localised it is not globally threatened.

Behaviour

General behaviour

The comb-crested jacana walks slowly and deliberately. It often congregates in flocks. When disturbed, it flies low over water and lands again on open vegetation.

Breeding

The comb-crested jacana is

polyandrous Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives ...

. It builds a flimsy nest on floating or emergent vegetation, in which the female lays four lustrous, pale brown eggs covered by black markings. Only males incubate. The young hatch well-developed and soon leave the nest.

Feeding

It eats seeds and aquatic

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s gleaned from floating vegetation on the water surface.

Voice

This species gives a squeaky, high-pitched chittering, also described as a shrill trill with an explosive soft bugle.

References

* BirdLife International. (2006). Species factsheet: ''Irediparra gallinacea''. Downloaded from https://web.archive.org/web/20130509230344/http://birdlife.org/ on 10 February 2007 * Marchant, S.; Higgins, P.J.; & Davies, J.N. (eds). (1994). ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 2: Raptors to Lapwings''. Oxford University Press: Melbourne. *

National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife was founded as a project of the Australian Museum on 3 June 1969 (as the National Photographic Index of Australian Birds) to compile a comprehensive collection of photographs of Australian bir ...

. (1987). ''The Shorebirds of Australia''. Angus & Robertson: Sydney. {{Authority control comb-crested jacana Birds of Australia Birds of Indonesia Birds of New Guinea Birds of the Philippines Birds of Borneo Birds of the Lesser Sunda Islands Birds of the Maluku Islands Birds of New Britain comb-crested jacana Taxa named by Coenraad Jacob Temminck