Hoatzin
Opisthocomus hoazin
— Where the name comes from
Opisthocomus is “wearing long hair behind”, from ópisthe and kómē: the crest of stiff backswept feathers. Hoazin is a Nahuatl word that the first naturalists applied by mistake to this South American bird, which has never been anywhere near Mexico. In Amazonia they call it the stinkbird, and that is the most informative name of the lot.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Hoatzin
- Habitat
- Flooded vegetation along rivers, lakes and swamps
- Range
- The Amazon and Orinoco basins
- Size
- 61–66 cm, 700–900 g
- Diet
- Leaves, shoots and flowers of waterside plants
- Lifespan
- 15 years in the wild
— Characteristics
- 01
The chicks have two claws on each wing and use them to climb.
- 02
Threatened, they drop into the water, swim, and climb back up the branch.
- 03
It flies very badly: a few flapping metres, then it grabs whatever it can.
— What sets it apart
It digests leaves by fermenting them, like a cow. The crop is enormous, takes up a third of the body and is full of bacteria that break down cellulose: no other bird in the world does this, and it is the reason for the smell — it reeks of manure, which is precisely why almost nobody hunts it. That very heavy crop has taken the space of the flight muscles, which is why it flies so badly. Where exactly it belongs on the birds’ family tree, despite dozens of genetic studies, nobody yet knows.
