Northern Jacana – A Bird with Spurs

I write a lot about the birds that I see and the birds that I think I’ll see. I even write about the birds I’ve seen once years ago or think I might see. Here’s a bird I’ve never seen (in Taylor County) and probably never will. Still, Austin’s got a record. So why not us? It’s a really cool bird too.


️Northern Jacana, adult
Northern Jacana have extremely long toes for walking on aquatic vegetation and spurs in the wings for fighting off rivals.

There’s nothing like a Northern Jacana. Adults have a maroon body; black head, neck, and upper breast; greenish-yellow flight feathers, orange skin on the crown, orange bills, and (not visible in the photo above) incredibly long toes. The toes are half the length of the body, a trait that allows the birds to stand on floating aquatic vegetation. Oh, and that’s not even the coolest trait. I forgot to mention the birds have a little claw or spur on each wing that they use to fight each other.

️Northern Jacana, juvenile
Young jacanas, which might be more likely to stray to northern Texas than adults, are white below. Photo Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

White below and brown above, young birds look markedly different than adults. They have a patterned head, with a brown cap, white line above the eye, and black marking on the side of the neck. The toes are still incredibly long.

Wait… How do you say the name?

There is a lot of confusion and even acrimonious debate among birders over saying the name. Even the Internet, when you search for the term ‘jacana pronunciation’, gets the word wrong. Most birders say juh-kawn-uh. Some try to get creative and give the word a Spanish flavor, making the ‘j’ silent (my wife’s dream, by the way) and pronouncing it hah-sawn-uh. Both are wrong. The word comes from the Tupi Indians and is a Portuguese word that’s truly spelled jaçana. In Portuguese, the J sound keeps it’s hard consonant and that weird ‘c’ with a pigstail is pronounced more like an ‘s.’ Thus it would be pronounced something like ”JAH-sah-NAH.”.

Rare in Texas

Northern Jacanas are part of a tropical group found around the world. This particular species occurs from Central America up through Mexico, rarely occurring in South Texas, where they have been recording breeding. I can’t stress enough though, the birds are rare anywhere in Texas. There are records along the Texas coast in places like Corpus Christi and around Houston. The species has occurred several times south of San Antonio, most notably at Choke Canyon State Park. There’s old records from Gonzales County, south of Austin, and a 1989 record from Austin itself.

So Does Taylor Really Have a Chance?

Not really, but here’s the thing. Many tropical species have been steadily moving north in recent decades, most likely due to climate change. Increasingly, rarities are showing up further north. So while I wouldn’t expect a Northern Jacana any time soon in Taylor County, it’s also not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

It’s like one of my favorite scenes in the movie Dumb and Dumber, when Lloyd is talking to the girl that he has a crush on…


Mary: Not good.

Lloyd: Not good like one in a hundred?

Mary: I’d say more like one in a million.

Lloyd: So you’re telling me there’s a chance?

And that chance is what makes birding so incredibly fun.

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