Description
This is the only jacana to have a different breeding plumage. The Pheasant-tailed Jacana is a conspicuous and unmistakable bird. They are around 39–58 cm (15–23 in) in length, about 25 cm (9.8 in) of which is comprised by the pheasant-like tail. Body mass is reportedly 113–135 g (4.0–4.8 oz) in males and 205–260 g (7.2–9.2 oz) the larger females. The outermost primaries have a spatulate extension of 2 cm and the seventh primary has a broad protrusion.
Breeding adults are mainly black other than white wings, head, and fore neck. The hind neck is golden. There is a striking white eyestripe. The legs and very long toes are grey. Non-breeding adults lack the long tail. The underparts are white except for a brown breast band and neck stripe. The side of the neck is golden. Young birds have brown upperparts. The underparts are white, with a weak brown breast band.
Measurements (From Rasmussen and Anderton): length 310 mm 390–580 mm (breeding) Wing (with extension of primary) 190–244 mm (adults) 168–228 mm (juveniles) Bill 23–30 mm Tarsus 45–58 mm Tail 194–376 mm (breeding) 110–117 mm (non breeding)
Read more about this topic: Pheasant-tailed Jacana
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)