Hooded Pitohui : The most poisonous bird

The Hooded Pitohui, is common and widespread throughout New Guinea.

This species, together with its 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 those touching the bird.

The hooded pitohui was the first poisonous bird to be identified. Of the three poisonous Pitohui species, the hooded pitohui (Pitohui dichrous) is the most brightly coloured and by far the most poisonous. It is followed by the variable pitohui (Pitohui kirhocephalus) and the rusty pitohui (Pitohui ferrugineus).

Pitohuis are brightly coloured, omnivorous birds. The Hooded Pitohui is brightly coloured, with a brick red belly and a jet black head. The skin and feathers of some pitohuis, especially the Variable and Hooded Pitohuis, contain powerful neurotoxic alkaloids of the batrachotoxin group. It is believed that these serve the birds as a chemical defence, either against ectoparasites or against visually guided predators such as snakes, raptors or humans. The birds probably do not produce batrachotoxin themselves. It is most likely that the toxins come from the Choresine genus of beetles, part of the bird's diet.