Hooded pitohui facts for kids

A 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.

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

Images for kids

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  The plumage of the hooded pitohui is dichromatic, black and rufous chestnut

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  The hooded pitohui uses the same family of batrachotoxin compounds as the golden poison frog of Colombia.

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  Brown tree snakes are bird predators that have been shown to be vulnerable to the poisons found in hooded pitohui.

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  The preparation of study skins for museums led to the discovery of toxins in the skins of hooded pitohui.

See also

In Spanish: Pitohuí bicolor para niños