The pheasant-tailed jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus) is a jacana in the monotypic genus Hydrophasianus. Like all other jacanas, they have elongated toes and nails that enable them to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes, their preferred habitat. They may also swim or wade in water reaching their body while foraging mainly for invertebrate prey. They are found in tropical Asia from Yemen in the west to the Philippines in the east and move seasonally in parts of their range. They are the only jacanas that migrate long distances and have different non-breeding and breeding plumages. The pheasant-tailed jacana forages by swimming or by walking on aquatic vegetation. Females are larger than males and are polyandrous, laying several clutches that are raised by different males in their harem.
The pheasant-tailed jacana is a resident breeder in tropical India, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia; it overlaps greatly in range with the bronze-winged jacana, but, unlike the bronze-winged jacana, is found in Sri Lanka. It is found on small to large lakes having sufficient floating vegetation. It is sedentary in much of its range, but northern breeders from south China and the Himalayas migrate south from their breeding ranges to Southeast Asia and peninsular India, respectively. In Nanking, the birds leave in November and return for summer in the third week of April. Some birds arrive in the non-breeding plumage. The species is resident in Taiwan, where it is considered endangered. Birds disperse in summer and have been recorded as vagrants in Socotra, Qatar, Australia and southern Japan (mainly Okinawa, Yonaguni, Ishigaki and Iriomote). The species tends to be commoner in lower elevations but climbs into the Himalayas in summer, and records exist of the species from altitudes of 3650 m in Kashmir (Vishansar Lake) and 3800 m in Lahul.
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