Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Hydrophasianus chirurgus (Scopoli, 1786)

≈30 cmLength160 gWeight

It is a waterbird that walks on floating leaves, trailing long central tail feathers in the breeding season.

Busiest months: December–February · Most records: India, China, Sri Lanka

Looks like Bronze-winged Jacana

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Central tail feathers greatly elongated in the breeding season
Face white and nape golden yellow in the breeding season
Body chocolate-rufous and wings mostly white in the breeding season
Wings white with black edges in flight

Male, female and young

Female larger than male; juvenile has rufous upperparts and an incomplete dark collar.

Voice

A cat-like “me-onp”; winter flocks give a nasal “teeun”.

Similar species

Bronze-winged Jacana

Juveniles are easily confused with Bronze-winged Jacana. Juvenile Pheasant-tailed Jacana has traces of black stripes on the side of the neck, white on the wings and a more slender bill.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: December–February · Most records: India, China, Sri Lanka

Pheasant-tailed Jacana has been recorded at 652 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 22 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Changaram Wetlands – EzhupunnaIndia2,112 records
Bharatpur – Keoladeo Ghana NPIndia1,876 records
Saul Kere / Sowl KereIndia1,441 records

More places

Tainan – Guantian Pheasant-tailed Jacana Ecological Education ParkTaiwan (China)1,380 records
Kaohsiung – Meinong Zhongzheng Lake Pheasant-tailed Jacana HabitatTaiwan (China)1,115 records
Baruipur MarshesIndia1,107 records
Sholinganallur/Perumbakkam MarshlandsIndia874 records
Khon Kaen University – WTPThailand872 records
Haiderpur Wetlands and Bijnor BarrageIndia841 records
Pavalathanoor Lake, TharamangalamIndia803 records

Countries and regions with the most records

India China Sri Lanka Thailand Cambodia Philippines Bangladesh Nepal

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The pheasant-tailed jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus) is a jacana in the monotypic genus Hydrophasianus. Like all other jacanas, they have elongated toes and nails that enable them to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes, their preferred habitat. They may also swim or wade in water reaching their body while foraging mainly for invertebrate prey.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Pheasant-tailed Jacana?

The Pheasant-tailed Jacana is about ≈30 cm long and weighs around 160 g.

Where does the Pheasant-tailed Jacana live?

Its breeding range: Oriental: widespread inland Pakistan to Luzon, Mindanao (northern, southern Philippines), Java and Bali. It is most often recorded in India, China and Sri Lanka.