Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A crested brownish bird (Opisthocomus hoazin) of tropical South America whose young have claws on the first and second digits of the wings.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Same as hoactzin.
Wiktionary
- n. A bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, with claws on the wing fingers of the juvenile and an enlarged crop used as a rumen.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Same as hoazin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. crested ill-smelling South American bird whose young have claws on the first and second digits of the wings
Etymologies
- From Nahuatl huāctzin (which probably designated a different bird). (Wiktionary)
- American Spanish hoazín, from Nahuatl uatzin, pheasant or small game bird. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The idea that the hoatzin is not close to seriemas or turacos, but is in fact a member of a hitherto-overlooked metavian clade at the base of Neoaves is an exciting one, mostly because it would make this bird strongly convergent on the coronavian turacos.”
“Even if the hoatzin is not one of them, cuckoos are quite interesting.”
“More taxa, more characters: the hoatzin problem is still unresolved.”
“Darren Naish: Tetrapod Zoology: Goodbye, my giant predatory, cursorial, flightless hoatzin”
“Based – it has to be said – on just a handful of detailed morphological characters, combined with some inference based on biogeography and superficial similarity, the South American landbird group theory suggests the following: that there might be a hoatzin-cariamaen clade, probably persisting as relicts in South America but more widespread during the early Cenozoic.”
“Worth noting is that, while there are two fossil hoatzins, neither of them preserve enough information to tell us anything useful about hoatzin affinities, or about the way of life of the fossil forms.”
“What do other studies have to say about the affinities of the hoatzin?”
“Sibley & Ahlquist (1973) concluded that the hoatzin was not just closely related to cuckoos, but actually deeply nested within Cuculidae.”
“Phylogenetic relationships of the enigmatic hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) resolved using mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences.”
“Most usually considered close to either gamebirds or cuckoos (in fact, when first described in 1776 the hoatzin was classified as a species of Phasianus), hoatzins have also been allied over the years with turacos, rails, hornbills, sandgrouse and pigeons.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hoatzin’.
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250 Further Spelling Words
Another compilation of spelling words suitable for intermediate to advanced spellers.
venturi, aesir, affenpinscher, rottweiler, amanuensis, balletomane, hansard, sangfroid, yukata, capriccio, cuisse, heriot and 237 more...
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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tHe Best Animals Ever
giraffe, elepant, cattle, water buffalo, langur monkey, baboon, lion, antelope, cheetah, tapeworm, kangaroo, bullfrog and 102 more...
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Nahuatl
"Spanish náhuatl, from Nahuatl, that which pleases the ear, from nahua-, audible, intelligent, clear."
- etymology from The American Heritage Dictionary
Nahuatl, Zapotec, Aztec, avocado, guacamole, amole, atlatl, axolotl, black sapote, cacao, cacomistle, chayote and 77 more...
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Animals (besides pottos)
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robin, wagtail, frog, bunny, pronk, rabbit, fur, badger, mouse, bee, crepuscular, purr and 140 more...
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Still More Bird Wirds
A work in progress....Birds from around the world (other than endemic to North America).
barbet, hornbill, trogon, bee-eater, bristlehead, wren-babbler, stubtail, blackeye, bush warbler, cassowary, bowerbird, bird-of-paradise and 722 more...
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birdie
bird names that are fun to say
coot, grackle, hoatzin, jay, barnacle goose, skua, rook, grosbeak, junco, chickadee, waxwing, nuthatch and 49 more...
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zoology
animals of interest
sloth, kakapo, kaka, hoatzin, numbat, wombat, hyena, wallaby, emu, morepork, jackdaw, magpie and 73 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hoatzin.
reesetee Neat article, mollusque--thanks! Sep 3, 2008
mollusque Alimentary, my dear hoatzin ! Sep 3, 2008
reesetee Nicknamed "stinkbird." Hoatzins use bacterial fermentation in the front part of the gut to break down the vegetable material they consume. With ruminants, this occurs in the rumen (a specialized stomach); in the hoatzin, it occurs in the crop. Aromatic compounds in the leaves the hoatzin consumes and the fermentation process itself give the bird its characteristic manure-like odor. Sep 2, 2008
emera I hope I'm not the only one who played EcoQuest when I was little. Apr 17, 2007