Image
details
1/250 sec, f8/5.6;
Kodachrome 64
Nikon F3 with Novoflex 400mm
Location: Kumana Villu, Yala National Park, Sri Lanka
Date:
March 1981
Shoot details
Who would have
thought a bird could actually carry an egg in its beak! This male jacana
appeared not to appreciate his mate’s choice of nest location or perhaps
he was aware that he had had too small a share of the copulations to be
confidant that the eggs contained his offspring. He flew with it a short
distance before dropping it into the lake. He did this a couple more
times with the next eggs laid, then encouraged the female to a new site
a few feet from the original nest; she laid four more eggs there which
the male incubated until the chicks hatched. We observed all this from a
4 x 4 water level platform hide erected in the lake in which we sat day
after day (for more than a month), documenting the full nesting cycle of
the jacana. We had to wade out to these hides through lotus and other
view-obscuring plants in thigh-deep water that was also home to at least
100 mugger crocodiles! I would comfort myself with the thought that
crocodiles find it difficult to attack the vertical (I hoped).
Species details
Jacanas are
waders found across the tropics. Often called 'Lily trotters' because of
their habit of walking on floating vegetation, the females of this
family are polyandrous. Pictured here is the 31cm male in breeding
plumage. In non-breeding plumage the species loses its long tail and
gets white underparts.
A
Birds of India presentation
