Image courtesy of Nature Picture Library/Alamy
Joel Kontinen
This weird blue-faced, red-eyed bird smells so bad
predators won't eat it.
The bird with clawed wings that some evolutionists claimed is a descendant of dinosaurs. It ls found in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America. It lives on leaves, fruits and flowers.
The hoatzin is often regarded as one of the world's
strangest birds. Hatchlings are born with clawed wings — a rare, prehistoric
trait— and adults give off a strong, unpleasant smell due to their cow-like,
fermenting digestive system, earning them the nickname "stinkbird."
Hoatzin have some pretty weird traits, with mohican
crests, blue facial skin, red eyes and large, fan-shaped tails, which they used
to maintain balance while navigating dense vegetation.
But these tropical birds are most notable for their
pungent odor, which is commonly compared to manure or rotting vegetation. This
unpleasant smell is the result of a highly unusual digestive process that sets
them apart from almost every other bird species.
Unlike most birds, the hoatzin has a foregut
fermentation system, similar to the one found in cows. It primarily feeds on
leaves, which it stores and ferments in a large, chambered crop — a temporary
food storage pouch located in the esophagus. Then, the food is passed to the stomach for fermentation,
where bacteria break down the tough plant material, releasing gases via burps
that produce the bird's distinctive manure-like odor.
But it is not a descendant of dinosaurs, it is a living fossil.
Source:
Lydia Smith 2025 Hoatzin: The strange 'stinkbird' born with clawed wings that appears to be an evolutionary 'orphan' | Live Science 10 May
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