I’ve found and have GPS coordinates of 4 Northern Jacana nests, three with four eggs and one with three eggs. I don’t know if they are from the same female, nor have I actually observe a Jacana incubating the eggs. The nests are fairly deep in the Catalina Sector Wetland (CSW) and are not observable from the road through the wetland, but I could observe them within the wetland itself. How is this usually done? The cattail is tall and basically impossible to see through or over.

Is it possible to weigh or gently handle the eggs? I wonder if I can find more nest that are obviously from different females and monitor some measure of fitness for each: number of eggs, weight per egg, hatchling success, hatchling growth rate, etc. These could all vary by habitat perhaps. The two locations pictured in Figures 1 and 2 are dominated by Pistia and are open areas surrounded by cattail. One location is pure cattail, but is open and the nest rests on a bed of decomposing cattail.