FEATURE
after season. Raising its chicks in elaborate roosts in the heart of buttonwood trees. Mukka mukka (wild arum) bushes proliferate along the water’s edge. Being the hoatzin’s favorite food source, both the verdant spathes enshrouding white spiked flowers and the arrow-shaped leaves beckon to the clumsy stink-bird. With a pair of bovine-like stomachs full of ‘good’ bacteria, the unique Canje pheasant can only digest buds and leafy vegetation…no seeds, no fruits. Just verdure. So, as the bird harmlessly ‘chews its cud’, like a cow, this ‘good’ bacteria forms a methane gas which the hoatzin belches up without warning. Immediately, putrid vapors waft through the tangled undergrowth. Ducky’s nose twitches at the rank brume.
‘She’s here.” Buddy cranks the engine off; the john-boat slowly eases into the cluster of ité palms and water lettuce. We dodge the fibrous fronds as the inky water laps against the side of our skiff. Further and further…deeper and deeper, we penetrate into the bowels of coastal forest. With the recent rainy season’s daily deluges, the Mahaica is swelled way beyond its banks and light paddling propels the boat effortlessly into the labyrinth of interlaced greenery. I don’t really like it in all these weeds, I tell myself. But I want to be a birder, and if this is what it takes… Luckily, for me, I manage to dodge the thorns of a kongo- pong tree AND a steady stream of cutter
ants climbing along a highway of strangler fig roots. As I flick a beetle from the sweaty hairs on my arm, my husband points towards the overgrowth. “See her?” I nod and, together, we strain to catch a glimpse of the hoatzin. A dozen pictures later and we have
retreated back into the main current, headed toward Ducky’s house along the riverbank. “I have a surprise for you.” The ‘surprise’ turns out to be Ashton, a gorgeous yellow-crested amazon, and family pet. Per the stipulations of the Parrot Protection Act, the bird is allowed to spend his days untethered, welcome to flitter from treetop to treetop to treetop, if he so desires. At the moment, however, he is sitting contentedly on a picnic table, surrounded by ornamental grasses and shrubbery purchased in Georgetown. The lemon-colored plumage on his head waggles in the humid breeze
BIRD SCENE 21
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