How do chicks escape predators?

By dropping into the water below

How do they digest leaves?

By fermenting them in a large crop, like cows

Hoatzin Quiz: Clawed Chicks and the Stinkbird of the Amazon

This hoatzin quiz drifts along the rivers of the Amazon and Orinoco basins to meet the stinkbird. Play 10 interactive questions on wing claws that help chicks climb, chicks dropping into water to escape, a leaf diet, fermenting food in a big crop like a cow, a smell like manure, a spiky crest, blue facial skin, weak flight and its status as Guyana's national bird.

Start Hoatzin Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Region
Where does the hoatzin live?
Claws
What do hoatzin chicks have on their wings?
Climb
How do chicks use their claws?
Escape
How do chicks escape predators?
Diet
What do hoatzins mainly eat?
Gut
How do they digest leaves?
Smell
Why is it called the stinkbird?
Look
What decorates its head?
Fly
How well do hoatzins fly?
Symbol
Which country's national bird is the hoatzin?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Where does the hoatzin live?
Answer: Amazon and Orinoco basins
It lives along rivers.
Q2: What do hoatzin chicks have on their wings?
Answer: Claws
They lose them as adults.
Q3: How do chicks use their claws?
Answer: To climb back up branches
They grip twigs.
Q4: How do chicks escape predators?
Answer: By dropping into the water below
They swim and climb back.
Q5: What do hoatzins mainly eat?
Answer: Leaves
It is unusual for a bird.
Q6: How do they digest leaves?
Answer: By fermenting them in a large crop, like cows
Bacteria break down the leaves.
Q7: Why is it called the stinkbird?
Answer: It smells like manure
Fermentation causes the smell.
Q8: What decorates its head?
Answer: A spiky crest
Its face is blue.
Q9: How well do hoatzins fly?
Answer: Poorly, over short distances
Their big crop weighs them down.
Q10: Which country's national bird is the hoatzin?
Answer: Guyana
It appears on its coat of arms.

The Clawed Chicks of the Amazon

The hoatzin lives along rivers and swamps of the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America. Its chicks have claws on their wings, which they use to climb branches. If danger comes, chicks drop into the water below, swim and then climb back up with their claws.

Hoatzins mainly eat leaves, unusual for birds. They ferment the leaves in a large crop with the help of bacteria, much like cows digest grass. The fermentation gives them a smell like manure, earning the nickname stinkbird.

Adults have a spiky crest, blue facial skin and red eyes. Their heavy crop makes them poor fliers, so they flutter short distances. The hoatzin is Guyana's national bird and appears on its coat of arms.

What This Quiz Teaches

Bird fans will enjoy these questions.

Where hoatzins live
How chicks use claws
What they eat
Why they smell
Which country honors them

Did You Know?

Groups nest over water.
They make wheezing calls.
Few predators want to eat them.
Their ancestry has puzzled scientists.
Adults lose their wing claws.