Bronze winged jacana: getting less fussy by the day

The bronze winged jacana is in attendance where it is expected to be — wetlands removed from human presence. And also in places where you do not expect it to be — spaces that are hugely defined by human presence. That status report follows a study of wetlands as well as densely-populated residential neighbourhoods cheek by jowl with these wetlands in the Chennai Metropolitan Area.

Provide the bronze winged jacana with a space of moderate dimensions that offers the qualities of a wetland including a mat of aquatic vegetation (which specifically is the point of this report), and it would be as much at home as any human homebody would be. This space could even be hemmed in by two compound walls built by human hands, but that is immaterial to the bronze winged jacana. But do not get it wrong — the bronze winged jacana still has the timorousness of the European Dwarf Angora. The bird has not taken leave of its amyglada, the part of the brain that whips up the fear response. When prying eyes are around, it would still duck of sight, disappearing into the vegetation. Whatever we had known about this bird in and around Chennai is not outdated syllabus. But there is a resilience to the bird that seems refreshingly new — or rather, getting newer by the day.

It clings to marshy vacant patches in neighbourhoods close to wetlands in Chennai Metropolitan Area, tenaciously. What is noteworthy is the flexibility it displays in terms of the aquatic vegetation. It would demand a thick mat of aquatic vegetation, but is not too particular about the plant species that makes up that cushion of protection. At a vacant plot in the  Shanti Nagar-Kailash Nagar region in Perumbakkam the bronze winged jacanas display this flexibilty.

The plot sports Ludwigia adscendens which can hardly serve as a hideout unlike a shock of water hyacinth with its big broad leaves, which the bronze-winged jacana is hugely comfortable with. The bronze winged jacanas are at home in this patch: quite literally, as, to all appearances, a female bronze winged jacana maintains a harem of males (being a polyandrous species, it is just acting in character by doing so), and one already can see a juvenile bronze winged jacana ranging around that patch.

Ludwigia adscendens puts out a creeper of a stem where nodes put fresh shoots. This plants can form a reasonably dense mat, which however like a sparse head of hair, displays bald patches when it comes under bright sunlight. When flustered at perceived threat, the bronze winged jacanas in this patch rush to the section of the land that sports relatively thicker vegetation