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Is this bird deadly or did he eat a frog?
Pitohui is a genus of birds endemic to New Guinea, belonging to the family Pachycephalidae. Pitohuis are brightly colored, omnivorous birds. The skin and feathers of pitohuis contain powerful neurotoxic alkaloids of the batrachotoxin group. It is believed that these serve the birds as a chemical defense, either against ectoparasites or against visually guided predators such as snakes, raptors or humans. The birds do not produce batrachotoxin themselves that’s why they are not considered venomous but rather poisonous.
There are 6 species classified in this genus. The most notable species are the Hooded Pitohui and Variable Pitohui.
Originally posted by ufoyoshi
reply to post by Shdak
intresting,I wonder what the diet of the birds are?In the dart frog he pointed out the golden poisondart frog as it is known in the pet trade,we now know that their poison come from them eating ants and it is the akyloids in the ants that are use in the frog to manufacture their poison.It has also been observed that in the pet trade where you can control the frogs diet that they lose their toxic poison.proable do to the the diet feed to them in captivity,ie; pinhead crickets or fruit flies ect.