What primary risk must a Jacana dynamically balance against caloric reward while foraging?
The risk of falling into the water between unstable floating plants.
The act of locomotion itself is a critical, underlying factor in the Wattled Jacana's feeding strategy. Because they must constantly balance on perpetually shifting foliage, their foraging behavior involves a dynamic calculation. They weigh the potential caloric intake from a specific food item—whether a snail or a seed—against the energy expended and the inherent risk involved in reaching it. If the immediate substrate is too unstable, or the prey requires rapid, precarious movements, the bird might opt to ignore that item in favor of a static, easily reachable seed right beside its feet, demonstrating that the difficulty of the act of walking directly influences the selection of the item being eaten.
