Hooded Pitohui
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The Hooded Pitohui, Pitohui dichrous is a songbird of New Guinea with black and orange plumage.
This species and its two close relatives, the Variable Pitohui and the Brown Pitohui, are the first documented poisonous birds. A neurotoxin called homobatrachotoxin found in the birds' skin and feathers, causes numbness and tingling in bird-touchers. In 1991, a University of Chicago student felt numbness and burning in his mouth when he licked his hands after handling a hooded pitohui
The Hooded Pitohui acquires its poison from part of its diet, the Choresine beetle of the Melyridae family. This beetle is also a likely source of the lethal batrachotoxins found in Colombia's poison dart frogs.
Common and widespread throughout New Guinea, the Hooded Pitohui is listed as "Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
References
- BirdLife International (2004). [Pitohui dichrous]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
External links
- [BirdLife Species Factsheet]
- [IUCN Red List]
- [The Intoxicating Birds of New Guinea by John Tidwell]
- [The Pitohui and the Frog by Robert B. Hole, Jr.]
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