The northern jacana has a dark brown body with a black head and neck.

The northern jacana is unusual among birds in having a polyandrous society.

The northern jacana ranges Mexico to Panama, although they occasionally visit the southern United States.

The Northern Jacana, on the other hand, is a member of the order Charadriiformes, a group clearly not closely related to either Musophagidae or Galliformes.

Jacana is the genus comprising the two jacanas of the Americas: the Northern Jacana, Jacana spinosa, and the Wattled Jacana, Jacana jacana.

In one, typified by the Northern Jacana and some other ground-living birds, the female takes on much the same role as the male in a polygynous species, holding a large territory within which several males build nests.

The Northern Jacana or Northern Jaçana (Jacana spinosa) is a wader which is a resident breeder from coastal Mexico to western Panama, and on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola.

The females are larger than the males; the latter, as in some other wader families like the phalaropes, take responsibility for incubation, and some species (notably the Northern Jaçana) are polyandrous.

The Northern Jacana or Northern Jaçana (Jacana spinosa) is a wader which is a resident breeder from coastal Mexico to western Panama, and on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola.

Jacana is the genus comprising the two jacanas of the Americas: the Northern Jacana, Jacana spinosa, and the Wattled Jacana, Jacana jacana.

The Northern Jacana or Northern Jaçana (Jacana spinosa) is a wader which is a resident breeder from coastal Mexico to western Panama, and on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola.