They're not just for snakes and spiders! Some birds also poisonous. While no bird currently known to science wields a venomous bite. But It is, in fact, the only known genus of poisonous bird in the world. The Pitohui is one of New Guinea's most widely spread birds. Undoubtedly, there are other bird species that have chemical self-defense mechanisms to prevent predators from eating them, but to date, this is the only bird found to actually be poisonous to humans. At least three species of pitohui have a strong poison in their skin and feathers, the Hooded and Variable Pitohui being the deadliest of the three. Pitohuis are generally about 23 centimetres long with strong legs and a powerful beak. They are brightly feathered in red and black warning colors, much the same as the frogs. The Hooded appears to be the most dangerous, with the Variable being of medium toxicity and the Brown Pitohui the least harmful. The Hooded Pitohui is brightly colored, with a brick red belly and a jet black head. The Variable Pitohui, as its name implies, exists in many different forms, and twenty subspecies with different plumage patterns have been named. Two of them, however, closely resemble the Hooded Pitohui.Jack Dumbacher, researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, discusses his 1980s discovery of New Guinea's Hooded Pitohui, the first poisonous bird to be documented by science.
Some of the best discoveries in science are completely serendipitous. Dr. Dumbacher discovered, quite by accident, that a common Papua New Guinea bird uses potent poisons for protection. A defense never before documented in birds. And that's just the beginning of the story.
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