What is Hooded pitohui?
[[File: Pitohui_dichrous.jpg|thumb|200px| 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]]'' [[beetle]]s of the [[Melyridae]] family. These beetles are also a likely source of the lethal [[batrachotoxin]]s found in [[Colombia]]'s [[poison dart frog]]s.<ref>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. [http://www.pnas.org/content/101/45/15857.long]</ref> Common and widespread throughout [[New Guinea]], the hooded pitohui is of '[[Least Concern]]' on the [[IUCN Red List]] of [[threatened species]]. ==References== {{reflist}} {{-}} {{biology-stub}} [[Category:Birds of Oceania]] [[Category:Passeri]]