Two hoatzins, perched in Brazil

© Morten Ross/500px

Two hoatzins, perched in Brazil

We’re still waiting for the poet who dares to write an ode to the hoatzin, a bird that earns its other common name: stinkbird. Native to the Amazon mangrove swamps and the Orinoco Delta, the hoatzin has a digestive system more like a cow’s than a bird’s. It digests the leaves it eats with a gut full of enzymes that ferment the food and that fermentation gives off an unpleasant odor. Surely there’s some inspiration there.