There is at least one species of bird that is toxic to predators and shows it off by displaying bright “aposematic” (warning) colors. That one, the hooded pitohui of New Guinea (Pitohui dicrhous), was discovered to be toxic by Jack Dumbacher, one of our grad students at Chicago, and now Curator of Ornithology at the Cal Academy in San Francisco. As I recall, Jack noticed this when handling one of the birds and getting a tingling sensation in his hands. He later discovered that the feathers contain a neurotoxin, probably obtained by eating toxic beetles and spreading saliva over its feathers. Here’s a photo of the hooded pitohui from New Guinea Birds:
We were all amazed when Jack discovered what was the first—and perhaps still the only—case of a toxic bird showing off its distastefulness with bright colors. But now a group of researchers from the U.S. and Colombia have discovered…
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