hoatzin

[ hoh-at-sin, waht-sin ]

noun

1. a blue-faced, crested bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, of the Amazon and Orinoco forests, having as a nestling a large, temporary claw on the second and third digits of the forelimb, for climbing among the tree branches.

hoatzin

/ həʊˈætsɪn /

noun

1. a unique South American gallinaceous bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, with a brownish plumage, a very small crested head, and clawed wing digits in the young: family Opisthocomidae

Word History and Origins

Origin of hoatzin¹

1655–65; ≪ Nahuatl huāctzīn, huāhtzīn name for several hen-sized birds of the Valley of Mexico, apparently applied indiscriminately by early naturalists to similar New World birds

Word History and Origins

Origin of hoatzin¹

C17: from American Spanish, from Nahuatl uatzin pheasant

Example Sentences

The other tribe is represented by that strange bird the hoatzin of the Amazon.

From Project Gutenberg

But it is not nearly so long as in the hoatzin, and there is no terminal claw.

From Project Gutenberg

The flight of the hoatzin resembles that of an over-fed hen.

From Project Gutenberg

Such is the normal right destiny of a hoatzin chick, and the whee-og!

From Project Gutenberg

For the young hoatzin is hatched in a nursery—a crude nest of sticks—placed on the boughs of a tree overhanging the water.

From Project Gutenberg