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Pheasant-tailed Jacana
Latin Name:
Hydrophasianus chirurgus
Category:
Size:
30cm
Description:
Sexes alike. Male: breeding plumage chocolate-brown and white; goldenyellow on hind-neck. Dull brown and white; when not breeding, also has blackish necklace and lacks long tail; very long toes diagnostic. Solitary or in pairs when breeding; small flocks in winter; purely aquatic, moving on vegetation-covered pond surfaces; unusually long toes enable it to walk on the lightest of floating leaves; quite confiding on village ponds.
Habitat:
ponds and jheels covered with floating vegetation.
Food:
mostly seeds, tubers, roots; also insects, molluscs.
Distribution:
throughout area, up to about 1,500m in Kashmir; occasionally seen much higher.
![](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/pheasant%20tailed%20jacana4.jpg)
![](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/pheasant%20tailed%20jacana.jpg)
![](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/pheasant%20tailed%20jacana2.jpg)
![](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/pheasant%20tailed%20jacana3.jpg)
![](https://birds.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/Pheasant%20tailed%20jacana%20megh.jpg)
Call:
Call Description:
loud, mewing call when breeding, two birds often calling in duet.
IUCN:
National Status:
At IITK: