Meet the jacanas, a family of wading birds that are spread across Asia, Africa, South and Central America, and Australia.

THAT MIGHT look like a poor little waterbird with a horrifying number of extra legs, but the good news is it’s a perfectly healthy jacana and those are its babies’ legs, dangling from its chest.

Which doesn’t actually sound much better, but rest assured, this is all fine.

The jacanas are a family of wading birds that are spread across Asia, Africa, South and Central America, and Australia.

There are just eight known species, and they’re easily identifiable for having extremely long, thin toes, which allow them to walk across lily pads and other floating vegetation with ease.

While they all have those expansive feet – it’s where they got the nickname Jesus birds from – and a lovely almond-shaped body, jacanas are surprisingly diverse.


The African jacana (Actophilornis africanus). Image credit: JMx Images/Shutterstock