African Jacana bird – for those who haven’t seen it, it might be a bit confusing with the image seen today, whether it’s actually a millipede, or it’s a bird. Monster, an alien, or an editor?
They do exist on our planet, and the legs they see are real (not prosthetics).
Officially, Actophilornis africana is a wading bird or wetland bird of the family Jacanidae, a species of bird found in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is a medium-sized bird, with an estimated size of 23 to 31 cm, often like many other common animals, with females being larger than males. Males weigh only 137 grams, but females weigh 261 grams. This is the largest bird Jacana. Known by the Thais as the crested bird or the chili bird by the Jacana or waterfowl queen, a small bird with very long feet. A total of seven species are found in swamps or marshes in tropical regions around the world. The African Jacana lives in swamps that eat crabs, fish, and small aquatic animals, and is usually found only on the African continent…
The uniqueness of this bird is the presence of dark stripes from the eyes, back of the head to the tips of the wings. But the color of the wings is dark brown. It has a blue bill reaching the middle of its head and long gray legs. The underside of its body is also dark brown. But before maturity, they are white and instead have dark brown stripes on the abdomen.
Comb-crested jacana waterbird carrying chicks to safety captured in remarkable pictures – ABC News
The chicks appear to be well protected, and their brighter yellow tones become invisible to predators.
But what is considered unique is the many legs. The fact is that this bird has very slender legs and toes. And the claws on each finger are up to 7 cm long. This allows it to walk on a wide variety of aquatic plants, especially in shallow ponds with floating plants or a pile of aquatic plants by foraging in this area, eating insects or other animals, small backbone for food.
They also build floating nests in this area to breed during the breeding season. Females can mate with multiple males. It lays about four eggs in a nest and the eggs that hatch will have a curator. Until the children grow up. So when it goes to find food in water sources like this, it has to bring its own children. That’s also the reason we see it has so many extra small legs, in fact, it’s the legs of its children.
