GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
tags: African Jacana, Actophilornis africanus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Jacana, Actophilornis africanus, endemic to marshes and reedbeds across eastern and southern Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The jacanas are a small group of strange rail-like shorebirds of tropical marshes. Though the different species are distinct in plumage, they share a plump body, long neck, and fowl-like bill with a more or less complex plate extending from the upper mandible onto the forehead. . Often called "lily trotters," jacanas are further characterized by absurdly long, fine toes, which in fact do let them prance on top of floating vegetation.
This is an African Jacana, common and widespread south of the Sahara; its white cheeks, chestnut body, and blue frontal shield render it unmistakable.
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Comments
If it had a red cap, I'd say it was a marsh hen. Which are cute birds, and often let you approach quite close. Blue cap? Don't know.
Posted by: Russell | January 7, 2009 10:22 AM
Jacana
They have really long toes for walking on lily pads.
This bird has been banded.
Posted by: kamaka | January 7, 2009 11:18 AM
HI:
The bird in the picture is an African Jacana. It can be told from the Lesser Jacana (the only other jacana in Africa) by its reddish plumage (in adults anyway).
Posted by: Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen | January 7, 2009 1:28 PM
Specifically a Northern Jaçana, Jacana spinosa. It's a lovely name if pronounced the Brazilian Portuguese/Tupi way, but good ol' Linnaeus unwittingly spawned generations of to-MAY-to/to-MAH-to arguments when he didn't change the "ç" to an "s" in latinizing it. I wish the nomenclatural powers that be would either correct that oversight or call them all "lilytrotters."
As long as we're on the subject, is the nominate subspecies of the Wattled Jaçana, Jacana jacana jacana the most redundantly named bird on the planet?
Posted by: Sheri Williamson | January 7, 2009 1:29 PM
Oopsie. Ian's correct, of course. Can't imagine why I spaced on this, especially when I've seen hundreds of Northerns (though not recently) but never an African in person. Maybe I had the juvenile Northern in mind. Ah, well...
Posted by: Sheri Williamson | January 7, 2009 2:45 PM
Of course! it's a GROOTLANGTOON!
Does the female have the white 'eyebrow'? I only have the small paperbback (by Ber Van Perlo). Murray
P.S. A thank-you to Ian Paulsen, who pointed me in the right direction. M.
Posted by: Murray Hansen | January 7, 2009 6:51 PM
"Grootlangtoon" is such a good word that I halfway expect it to turn up in some future Star Wars installment.
Posted by: Sheri Williamson | January 8, 2009 3:58 AM
I agree completely with Sheri Williamson. After "jacana", let's fix "aracari". Or maybe before, since I think more English speakers people are used to "jacana" (in Africa and Australia).
Other tautonymous trinomials are Ciconia ciconia ciconia and Gallus gallus gallus, which are at Avibase, so at least some recognize them. Among mammals I know Bison bison bison.
Posted by: Jerry Friedman | January 8, 2009 3:11 PM
Hurray for Sheri and Jerry for raising this issue of poorly transliterated aboriginal names! There's no reason that these English versions shouldn't be spelled to reflect their pronunciation (though I myself say "jaKAna" and proudly). I've long wanted the English names of those delightful toucans to be spelled "arasari." And now the big guns have been ranged up behind me, we can get it done!
Happy New Year, all!
r
Posted by: Rick Wright | January 9, 2009 10:26 AM