The African Jacana walks on floating plants with its long toes and forages in wetlands. During breeding, the male incubates the eggs and cares for the chicks.
Adults have a black crown and hindneck, a white face and throat, and a breast that grades from yellow to chestnut. The bill and the bare skin at its base are blue. Females are much larger than males but have similar plumage.
It walks over floating leaves on long toes and straight claws, pecking at aquatic insects and their larvae. During breeding, a female may mate with multiple males, which incubate and raise the young.
In southern Africa it usually lays four eggs, with a range of three to five, on a low heap of aquatic plant stems. The male alone incubates for about 23–27 days.
Chicks leave the nest within four hours of hatching and are cared for by the male. He may carry them beneath his wings, sheltering as many as four small chicks at once.
It picks beetles, flies, dragonflies and bees from plants or the water surface, and also eats spiders, crustaceans, molluscs and small fish.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.