Here's a weird looking bird I stumbled on Reddit today:
Lol, just look at these sexy long legs, so funny and cute 馃グ
The bird depicted above is commonly known as the comb-crested jacana or the lotus bird or lilytrotter. Scientifically described as Irediparra gallinacea, it can be found south-eastern Borneo, the southern Philippines, Sulawesi, Moluccas, Lesser Sunda Islands, north and south-east New Guinea, New Britain (Lake Lalili), and northern and eastern Australia.
The lotus bird belongs to the jacanas (birds of the order Charadriiformes) a group of tropical waders in the family Jacanidae. Not surprisingly these birds are best known for their enlogated legs and toes which help them spread their weight when walking on floating vegetation and lily pads. Which is why they are also knowns as.. Jesus birds 馃槀
In total there are 8 species from two genera: Hydrophasianus and Jacana. The genus Hydrophasianus includes the pheasant-tailed jacana and the bronze-winged jacana, while the genus Jacana includes the African jacana, the American jacana, the Australian jacana, the dwarf jacana, the Malayan jacana, and the lesser jacana.
Ok, I'll stop paraphrasing wikipedia now, I'll leave some links in the bottom if you would like to learn more about them.
In the meantime, let's ask chatgbt to tell us something weird about them 馃槀
One interesting and somewhat unusual aspect of jacanas is their reproductive behavior. In many species of jacanas, the females are polyandrous, which means that they have multiple mates.
This is quite unique as most birds are monogamous, with one male and one female forming a pair bond to breed.
However, in jacanas, the females will often mate with several males and lay eggs in each of their nests. The males will then be responsible for incubating the eggs and raising the chicks, while the females move on to mate with other males.
This kind of behaviour is called brood parasitism, where the male is doing all the parental care, while the female is off looking for other mates.
Ha! You go girls ! Bringing down that toxic patriarchy馃槀
Ok, here's a video showing these sexy legs in actions. The dad carrying the hatchlings looks like an abomination of nature, lol 馃槀馃槀馃槀
I think that's enough nature for today. Hopefully you found this as interesting as me. Or not.
As promised here are some links if you want to know more about these cute birds
