Scientific name: Actophilornis africanus
African jacanas are conspicuous and unmistakable birds. They have chestnut upperparts with black wingtips, rear neck, and eyestripe. The underparts are also chestnut in the adults, only in juveniles they are white with a chestnut belly patch. The blue bill extends up as a coot-like head shield, and the legs and long toes are grey.
Occurs across sub-Saharan Africa; in southern Africa it is locally abundant in northern Botswana, the Caprivi Strip, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and eastern South Africa, while more scarce elsewhere in Namibia and South Africa. It generally prefers shallow, freshwater wetlands and margins of slow-flowing rivers with low vegetation, especially areas dominated by water-lilies (Nymphaea), Willowherb (Ludwigia stolonifera), pondweeds (Potomogeton) and hornwarts (Ceratophyllium).
It mainly eats insects, doing most of its foraging on floating vegetation, walking or running with its large feet while plucking prey from plants and the water surface.
