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Message: <blockquote data-quote="chirundu" data-source="post: 4097350" data-attributes="member: 70669">I was wondering what to post on my blog to make it interesting as well as use full, and thought what may be a good ideas is to post about a few of my favourite birds and why I like them and what makes them interesting.I am going to start with the African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus)<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2994607490_999da0aea2.jpg?v=0" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I took this photo on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe in June 2008, where my parents own a boat we try to go as often as possible, and spend a few days fishing, game watching as well as birdwatching.I took this photo with my Panasonic DMC-FZ18 of the Jacana as it waded at the waters edge as it searched for food which consisted of mostly insects, but will also eat fish, crabs, shrimp and other aquatic animals like frogs.What makes the African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus) an interesting bird is that it is only the male who incubates and raises the chicks, the mother has nothing to do with it after mating, infact she is polyandrous and can mate with up to four males in a season. It is also left to the males to build the nest which he makes from leaves and other plant material and uses floating vegitation as the foundations! The female will then lay around four eggs which are speckled glossy brown. I have also heard that the male will protect the chicks by placing them under his wings, but have not seen this and wonder if anyone can either confirm or deny this?Many thanks to Lulie who has confirmed that the male can protect the chicks under his wings: "It is the male that incubates the eggs and once hatched is able to carry the chicks around in his wing brood pouch. It is not unusual to see up to 5 pairs of legs sticking out from under his wing."</blockquote>

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