| Photo Information |
Copyright: michael shalter (retlash)
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 60 W: 1 N: 168]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-n-g.gif) (1065) |
| Genre: Places |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2007-10-05 |
| Categories: Nature |
| Camera: Olympus SP 550 UZ |
| Exposure: f/4.4, 1/100 seconds |
| More Photo Info: [view] |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2008-06-25 15:38 |
| Viewed: 415 |
| Points: 0 |
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
| About an hour by boat from Puerto Maldonado down Rio Tambopata lies a lake inhabited by giant otters, pirana, and these funny birds by the name of hoazin ("stink birds"). The latin name is Opisthocomus hoazin. Undoubtedly the most bizarre bird on the planet. First of all, no one knows exactly how to classify it, so it has its own family and suborder. Second, it's the only bird that eats only veggies (leaves) and fruit. Third, when young it has a claw at the end of each wing to help climb back into a tree if it falls (the claws disappear in adulthood). Because it needs a huge crop to ferment the veggies, the hoazin has lost its sternal flight muscles making it a lousey flier. These pheasant-sized birds are raucous and highly sociable, living in small groups along the mangrove swamps and amazon tributaries. Seeing them up close, one is reminded of archeopterix...a living fossil. |
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