Hoatzin
The Hoatzin is a neotropical bird with a blue face and an orange and brown mohawk-like crest. The crest is made up of shaggy, fan-shaped feathers. It has prominent red eyes and a short grey bill. They have Dark brown or bronze-olive plumage with chestnut-colored undersides and a long tail with cream colored tips. Hoatzins also have chestnut coloration on the underside and inside of their wings that give them a distinct appearance. Young Hoatzins have two claws on each wing used for climbing trees.
Hoatzin are found throughout the lowland ares areas of countries like Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. They are water-dependent and prefer swamps, marshes and flooded forests. Their nests are made of sticks in the low-land trees and shrubs that hang directly over the water.
Interestingly, Hoatzin favor the dense vegetation. They are ruminators like cows , goats and sheep. Hoatzins digest their their food with the help of bacterial fermentation. The difference is , mammals have specialized sacs in their gut called a rumen, whereas Hoatzins have an enlarged esophagus and crop. The Hoatzin is the only bird in the entire world that uses these foregut compartments instead of a stomach to digest its food. The digestion period takes about 45 hours. As a result, Hoatzins not only smell bad , their taste is also very unpleasant which is why it hasn’t been over hunted.
The day to day life of a Hoatzin revolves around foraging for leaves, digesting them slowly and roosting.They are most active in the early morning and late evening, foraging. They are also poor fliers , preferring to clumsily clamber through the branches rather than fly. However ,Hoatzins are fond of company and very sociable. Living in family groups , they spend 80 percent of their day resting. During this time they sit together and make a variety of vocalizations, including grunts groans and hisses. The vocalizations can be social ,as well as, act as a warning to others of danger. Hoatzin are also cooperative breeders with helpers that often assist with nest building , incubation and raising the chicks.
