hoatzin [hoh-at-sin, waht-sin] ExamplesWord Origin noun
- 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.
Also hoactzin. Origin of hoatzin 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 Examples from the Web for hoatzin Historical Examples of hoatzin
The other tribe is represented by that strange bird the hoatzin of the Amazon.
W. P. Pycraft
But it is not nearly so long as in the hoatzin, and there is no terminal claw.
W. P. Pycraft
The flight of the hoatzin resembles that of an over-fed hen.
William Beebe
Such is the normal right destiny of a hoatzin chick, and the whee-og!
William Beebe
This was the real home of the birds, and this plant forms the background whenever the hoatzin comes to mind.
William Beebe
British Dictionary definitions for hoatzin hoatzin hoactzin noun
- 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 Origin for hoatzin C17: from American Spanish, from Nahuatl uatzin pheasant