Madagascar Jacana photographed by Zieger M (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73610183)
Jacanas are identifiable by their greatly elongated toes and claws that enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes and ponds that make up their habitat, giving rise to the nickname “lily-trotters” in some places.
Madagascar Jacana females are significantly larger than males, suggesting that — like the six other jacana species with reversed sexual size dimorphism — this species may follow a polyandrous mating system. However, for this understudied species there is insufficient breeding data to be certain.
