Immature Pheasant Tailed Jacana

Description:

In breeding, it can be identified by white and chocolate-brown plumage and the pointed downward tail. Non-breeding birds like the one shown above are mostly pale brown and white with a black necklace on the upper breast and without the pheasant tail. Both sexes are alike. Spidery elongated toes as seen in the first picture. Eats vegetable matter, aquatic insects and plant matters from the plants growing in a pond. Sometimes these birds are known to lay eggs directly on leaves of Lotus or other aquatic plants, leaving the eggs partially submerged in water.

Habitat:

Vegetation covered ponds. This one was seen at a village pond.