-Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

-Chordates (Phylum Chordata)

-Vertebrates (Subphylum Vertebrata)

-Birds (Class Aves)

-Shorebirds and Allies (Order Charadriiformes)

-Jacanas (Family Jacanidae)

-New World Jacanas (Genus Jacana)

-Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa)

The Northern Jacana inhabits shallow freshwater wetlands across tropical and subtropical regions from Mexico through Central America. It favours marshes, lagoons, ponds, and slow-moving backwaters thick with floating vegetation such as water lilies. Known for its exceptionally long toes and claws, the Northern Jacana can walk lightly across floating leaves. Its behaviour is unusual among birds: females are larger and maintain territories that may include several males, while males perform most of the incubation and chick-rearing duties (a polyandrous breeding system). The species is active and conspicuous, often giving sharp, repeated calls while patrolling vegetation. Its diet consists mainly of aquatic invertebrates—such as insects, spiders, snails, and small crustaceans—picked from plant surfaces or the water’s edge, though it may also consume seeds and other small plant material opportunistically.