This is Bird Note.

Imagine paddling slowly along the edge of a forested oxbow lake in eastern Ecuador.

Suddenly, an ungainly bird the size of a chicken takes off from an overhanging shrub

and flaps awkwardly into the next clump of bushes.

It's Ahwatson, one of the strangest birds in the world.

With scraggly crest and long tail, it looks like a bird put together by a committee.

Bright blue facial skin, piercing red eyes, add to its exotic appearance. But that's not the only odd thing about this bird.

The Watson is a vegetarian,

filling its stomach with leaves, and then resting and digesting for long periods.

The wheezy calls of a group sound more like a troop of monkeys than a flock of birds. If you were to watch closely, you'd see more of them,

as they're highly social. They nest over the water, and when a chick is disturbed by a predator,

it drops out of the nest with a splash and climbs back into the vegetation, using vestigial claws

on its wings. These claws are unique in the bird world. You can see

Watson's almost anywhere along the tributaries of the Amazon River or get a

look at one including one of those chicks with claws on its wings on our website

bird note.org. I'm Michael Stein.