Thursday, May 5, 2011

Hooded Pitohui

I picked a species Hooded Pitohui, Pitohui dichrous. They are from the vertebrate line. This is a song bird from New Guinea and has generally Halloween colors (black and orange). This species is interesting because it is poisonous; it has a neurotoxin called homobatrachotoxin that causes numbness and tingling when something touches the species. It is probably poisonous because of the Choresine beetles it eats which are also poisonous.


This is interesting because I didn't even know that birds could be poisonous/venomous. What an unique bird...


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4 comments:

  1. Ashleen TuckerMay 6, 2011 at 12:10 AM

    Wow! What an incredible bird. It looks so cute that is almost hard to think of it as dangerous. That this bird’s special ability probably comes from its diet is even cooler. Eating poisonous beetles is usually dangerous to the diner's health, not their touchy acquaintances. Thank you for sharing this.

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  2. HollyMay 6, 2011 at 6:27 PM

    Very interesting animal thats for sure! I wasn't even aware that some birds had the ability to be deadly! It's really strange that this bird will primarily eat poisonous beetles, yet it does not harm the bird itself. Nice research for this week's post!

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  3. James McCririeMay 8, 2011 at 3:54 PM

    wow what a cool looking bird with a very cool trait to protect itself. Never expected a bird to be able to be poisons as a way to protect itself. very cool

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  4. Professor MartinezMay 15, 2011 at 3:53 PM

    Way cool! serial toxicity!

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