Having sailed and explored the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve for over a decade, we’ve seen some astounding wildlife. Out of everything we’ve witnessed, we feel that the hoatzin (pronounced wat-sin) might just be the strangest bird of all in the Peruvian Amazon. Hoatzin Birds hatch with claws on their wings, bear a striking resemblance to a late Jurassic era dinosaur.
We’re not alone in thinking this. Just last month in May 2019, French biologists have joined numerous other scientists in associating the hoatzin (scientific name: Opisthocomus hoazin) with the Archaeopteryx, a dinosaur species with strikingly similar characteristics that was believed to have existed from 150 to 125 million years ago and widely considered to be the first bird to exist.