Hoatzin

I'd apologize for not posting for the last few days, but the internet at my house has been bouncing between being very good and barely there, so I forgot about this while trying to make sure I wouldn't lose my Duolingo streak and check emails and I've actually been baking up a ton of things the last few days too. Stress baking that the internet wasn't working with me, then sore and tired enough I forgot. 

For today, we're going to talk about the Hoatzin. This Amazonian bird is more than a little bit wonky, and has confounded scientists several times. Before I explain why that is, I'll show you why I called them wonky, with a picture from the Rainforest Expeditions link below. 

I hope you can understand why I said wonky. 

Now for why they confound people. When making up the 'family trees' of birds, there are a lot of things that get considered for who is part of what family. The Hoatzin is the only one of it's family. That's not entirely unique among the animal world, and I think I've mentioned that about a few animals before, but it still is something that scientists have to work hard on. DNA testing has been around for about 45 years, give or take, but there is a lot of DNA in each test, and a lot of animals to get tested, so there's been a lot of reshuffling as things get tested but no one is waiting for the tests to try to figure things out. The point here though, is that the Hoatzin got tested and they're the only one of their family still alive. It doesn't have sibling-species, just cousins or second-cousins. 

Beyond that though, here's some of how ridiculous they are: the chicks have claws on the tips of their wings, something that's a holdover from archeopteryx ancestors, and those babies can swim and will dive into the water to escape predators. The adult's stomachs are also strangely similar to that of cows and other ruminants, with a fermentation process happening to the leaves they eat. It's led to them being a bit gassy, but they manage it fine. The leaves are another unusual thing about them, because very few birds eat leaves, especially as their main food. They're really stinky, often called 'stink birds' or 'skunk birds' because they smell like cow manure, which makes sense since their digestive system and diet are similar to that of cows and their digestion causes methane gas to build up and be burped out. Their digestion actually weighs a good chunk more for them than it does for other birds, so they don't really fly much more than a chicken, even though they make nests up in the trees. 

You can understand why this weird, weird bird is not closely related to any other birds, and why they couldn't figure out where to put it on the family tree. It might actually be closer related to a goat than a robin, but don't quote me on that. 

That picture is from the Rainforest Expeditions link too. I like their pictures. They seem brighter than the others somehow. 

One thing that you might get a kick out of-- the family name for these guys, Opisthocomus, means 'wearing long hair behind', and refers to their crest. When I found that out, I couldn't help but think of a mullet. These guys aren't exactly mullet wearers, but that's a bit of a dinosaur of a hairstyle, so...*Shrugs*

Altogether, these guys are unusual and weird and wonky, and I kinda love them but never want to actually meet them, both because they're stinky and if I get a vacation, I'm not going somewhere with more mosquitoes than I currently have to deal with. Either way though, I hope you liked learning about them and now you have something funny to tell people around you, and you can probably get 5 bucks off someone by making a bet about if there are any birds that digest things like cows. Good luck with you if you're going to try that. 

Sources:

Animal Diversity Web-- Hoatzin

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Hoatzin

Wild Latitudes- Hoatzin

eBird- Hoatzin

Audubon--Hoatzin

Fact Animal-- Hoatzin

Rainforest Expeditions-- 3 odd facts about Hoatzins

San Francisco Zoo-- Hoatzin