With their strikingly long toes, Northern Jacanas are adept at balancing on floating plants and are therefore able to exploit a habitat available to few other birds. They are quarrelsome and often engage in combat with one another, using sharp spurs on the bend of the wing. Females are somewhat larger than males and defend a large territory in which several males build nests and care for the eggs and young.

description 8-9" (20-23 cm). A dark, robin-sized marsh bird with very long toes. Head and neck black, body and folded wings dark rufous. Large, pale-green wing patches visible in flight; bright yellow frontal shield.

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