Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The hoatzin is a folivore—it eats the leaves (and to a lesser degree, the fruits and flowers) of the plants that grow in its marshy and riverine habitat. It clambers around along the branches in its search for food. The hoatzin uses a leathery “bump” on the bottom of its crop to help balance its weight on the branches.
A hoatzin. It has been observed that folivory is extremely rare among flying vertebrates. [2] Morton (1978) attributed this to the fact that leaves are heavy, slow to digest, and contain little energy relative to other foods. [2] The hoatzin is an example of a flighted, folivorous bird. There are, however, many species of folivorous flying insects.
The Hoatzin is pheasant-sized, but much slimmer. It has a long tail and neck, but a small head with an unfeathered blue face and red eyes which are topped by a spiky crest. It is a weak flier which is found in the swamps of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Hoatzin, Opisthocomus hoazin
Inopinaves is a clade of neoavian birds recovered in a compressive genomic systematic study using nearly 200 species in 2015. It contains the clades Opisthocomiformes and Telluraves (core landbirds); the study shows that the hoatzin diverged from other birds 64 million years ago. [2]
Examples of precocial birds include the domestic chicken, many species of ducks and geese, waders, rails, and the hoatzin. Precocial birds can provide protein-rich eggs and thus their young hatch in the fledgling stage – able to protect themselves from predators and the females have less post-natal involvement.
They have been proposed to link the hoatzin to the other living birds, [1] but this was later disputed. [2] Recent genetic analyses have strongly supported the order ranking of Musophagiformes. [3] [4] [5] Musophagidae is one of very few bird families endemic to Africa, [6] one other being the mousebirds, Colliidae.
Hoatzin is part of WikiProject Birds, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative and easy-to-use ornithological resource. If you would like to participate, visit the project page , where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.
Galliformes / ˌ ɡ æ l ɪ ˈ f ɔːr m iː z / is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl.Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often reared by humans for their meat and eggs, or hunted as game birds.