Hooded Pitohui

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Zweifarbenpitohui

The Zweifarbenpitohui ( Pitohui dichrous ) is a bird of the family Orioles ( Oriolidae ). The name is based on the simple two-tone (black and orange) plumage. The species is found only in New Guinea and has been classified as not at risk.

Poison

A special feature distinguishes the Zweifarbenpitohui: It is next to the living also in New Guinea Blaukappenflöter ( Ifrita kowaldi ) and forest - thick head ( Colluricincla megarhyncha ) one of the few venomous birds worldwide. The Papua catch and consume nearly all species of birds, which provides them with the nature. The Zweifarbenpitohui is not among them, he is considered bitter and is palatable only with happiness.

Beginning of the 1990s, ornithologists discovered in New Guinea coincidence that the toxicity of these species. Studies have subsequently shown that in the skin and in the springs, the poison Homobatrachotoxin is included, which is one of the most powerful known toxins and leads to muscular cramps.

It was unclear, however, as the poison enters the body of the Zweifarbenpitohui. The poison dart frogs ( Dendrobatidae ) in South America, it has long been suspected that the same poison is not synthesized by the frogs themselves, but probably taken in through food. When bred in captivity there is this poison is no longer in the skin of frogs.

Papua New Guinea have made the researchers to a beetle ( Choresine pulchra ) carefully containing this potent poison. These beetles are part of the food of the Zweifarbenpitohuis. One can therefore assume that by the poison enters the body of the birds. Like the birds protect themselves against it until now is not known.

Etymology and History of Research

Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte described the Zweifarbenpitohui dichrous under the name Rectes. To analyze a type specimen from the Natural History Museum of Leiden it was available. Gustav Hartlaub had that already described in 1844 under the name Garrulax bicolor and it carried a label of Salomon Müller with that name. In the Leyden Museum was with the White-cheeked Maustimalie ( Trichastoma bicolor) ( Lesson, 1839) is another type, which already contained the name bicolor. Thus, Bonaparte decided in the International Regulations for Zoological Nomenclature for the new name.

The subspecies Pitohui dichrous monticola Rothschild, 1904, you still occasionally found in the literature, is now regarded as a junior synonym of the nominate form.

The term " Pitohui " is the Papuan name for this species, which is inspired by the Maori word " pitoitoi " for " snap ". The epithet " dichrous " comes from the Greek word "di - δύο " for " two " and " Khros χρώμα " for " paint, skin color ," from.