Hooded pitohui
| Hooded pitohui | |
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| File:Pitohui dichrous.jpg | |
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P. dichrous
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| Binomial name | |
| Pitohui dichrous Bonaparte, 1850
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The hooded pitohui (Pitohui dichrous) is a pitohui of New Guinea with black and orange plumage. Both male and female birds have colored patches in their plumage. It is one of the few known poisonous birds. This species now usually placed in the family Oriolidae.
Toxin
This species and its two close relatives, the variable pitohui and the rusty pitohui, were the first documented poisonous birds other than the poisonous common quail that cause coturnism. A neurotoxin called homobatrachotoxin, found in the birds' skin and feathers, causes numbness and tingling in those touching the bird.[2][3]
The hooded pitohui may acquire its poison from part of its diet, the Choresine beetles of the Melyridae family.[4] These beetles are also a likely source of the lethal batrachotoxins found in Colombia's poison dart frogs.[5][6]
Conservation status
Common and widespread throughout New Guinea, the hooded pitohui is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.[7]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://fora.tv/2010/03/17/Expedition_Papua_New_Guinea_with_Jack_Dumbacher
- ↑ Natalie Angier: Rare Bird Indeed Carries Poison in Bright Feathers. New York Times 1992-10-30
- ↑ http://www.pnas.org/content/101/45/15857.full
- ↑ Dumbacher et al., PNAS 101(45):15857-15860
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ BirdLife Species Factsheet
External links
- The Intoxicating Birds of New Guinea by John Tidwell at wayback machine
- The Pitohui and the Frog by Robert B. Hole, Jr. at wayback machine
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