The photo
above is not depicting some ten-legged mutant bird as some of our Instagramcommenters have suggested. It's also not one of those hilarious birds with arms
memes.
He's just
one brave daddy bird hauling his four chicklings to safety.
Comb-crested
Jacanas (Irediparra gallinacea) are also known as lillytrotters or Jesus-birds
for their ability to seemingly walk across water. Their gangly legs end in long
twiggy-toes, splayed wide to distribute their weight across the surface of lily
pads and the other floating plants they walk on.
This allows
the water plants to keep these 20 to 27 centimetre (8 to 11 inch) birds afloat
as they dart across the surface of their wetland habitats.
Here, they
search for their favourite foods, mostly freshwater invertebrates such as
aquatic moth larvae, and aquatic plant seeds, particularly lily seeds.
(DirkKotze1/iStock)
Sally Corte
from Queensland, Australia captured the jacana pictured in the cover and in the
image below, as it was displaying this species' unique parenting behaviour.
"I was
lucky to be in my canoe, quietly removing by hand the water weed called
Salvinia, when I saw a jacana with some chicks trailing behind," Corte
told Science Alert in an email.
"Although
common, they are quite shy and very wary, making capturing them on camera
difficult."
After she'd
run back to get her camera, the chicks were gone, so she snapped an image of
just the adult.
It wasn't
until Corte processed the images she was lucky enough to snap that she
realised: "there were actually 8 dangling legs!"
(Sally
Corte/CorteOnCamera)
Comb-crested
jacana dads literally pick up their babies with their wings to carry them to
safety. Considering up to 80 percent of nests can be lost before they hatch,
it's no wonder they'll do everything in their power to save their precious
chicks from any potential threats.
There have
also been claims they relocate their eggs by carrying them under their chin.
These
jacanas can be found in wetlands from Borneo, though to New Guinea and
Australia's north and east coast to the Canberra area.
Back in
2000, ornithologist Terrence Mace's study on this species mating system found
these birds are polyandrous, meaning the larger female jacanas mate with more
than one male - between 2-3 males on average.
After laying
their eggs on floating nests, female jacanas often fly off for fun times with
another lover, leaving their mate with full responsibility for incubating these
quite strikingly patterned eggs all by themselves.
The males
then become the sole carers for the awkward floofs on stilts once they've
hatched.
Mace
believes this unusual mating strategy may have evolved due to their high rate
of clutch loss - the more eggs laid, the greater the chance some birds might
make it.
(Sally
Corte/CorteOnCamera)
Corte explained
how the jacanas are one of the permanent residents amongst an ever shifting
population of wetland birds on her property's freshwater dam in Queensland.
"Some
birds appear occasionally, like the black-necked stork and brolgas and others
are seasonal daily visitors such as magpie geese and whistling ducks," she
said.
As with too
many of our wildlife around the world, these birds are threatened by the usual
suspects, including the destruction of their amazing wetland habitats and
predation by feral animals like foxes. Comb-crested jacanas are listed as
vulnerable in the Australian state of New South Wales.
(Sally
Corte/CorteOnCamera)
"I've witnessed other male jacanas sheltering their chicks in the same way from rain," Corte told us. "What awesome dads!"
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