Ecology and Reproductive Strategy of the Wattled Jacana (Jacana Jacana, Aves, Jacandae) in the Cauca Valley

Abstract

Polyandrous systems in birds constitute a very rare mode of social organization and are characterized by the maintenance of bonds of a female with several males, with the basic condition of a reversal in the role of the sexes, that is, that the male assumes the totality of paternal care (including nest construction, incubation and rearing of the chicks). In some cases, bonds are maintained throughout a breeding season (simultaneous polyandry) while in others, the bond with each male ends after mating and the female then proceeds to mate with another male (serial polyandry).

Such polyandrous systems have been documented for a few species distributed in 8 families, including the Jacanidae which have a circumtropical distribution.