Hooded pitohui

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,  were the first known poisonous birds. A neurotoxin  found in the birds' skin and feathers causes numbness and tingling in those touching the bird.

The hooded pitohui gets its poison from part of its diet, the Choresine beetles of the Melyridae family. These beetles are also a likely source of the lethal batrachotoxins found in Colombia's poison dart frogs.Dumbacher J.P. et al 2004. Melyrid beetles (Choresine): a putative source for the Batrachotoxin alkaloids found in poison-dart frogs and toxic passerine birds. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 (45): 15857–15860. 

Common and widespread throughout New Guinea, the hooded pitohui is of 'Least Concern' on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

References

Category:Birds of Oceania
Category:Passeri