Pitohui

Pitohuis
Hooded Pitohui
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Pachycephalidae
Genus:	Pitohui Lesson, 1830
Species
See text.
Synonyms
Melanorectes Sharpe, 1877 Melanorectus (lapsus) Melanorhectes Finsch & Meyer 1886 (unjustified emendation) Pseudorectes Sharpe, 1877 Pseudorhectes Finsch & Meyer, 1886 (unjustified emendation) Rectes Reichenbach, 1850

The pitohuis (Pitohui) are a genus of birds endemic to New Guinea, belonging to the family Pachycephalidae.

Currently six species are classified in the genus, though current molecular genetics research suggests that significant reclassification of the Pachycephalidae may be needed.

Species

• Variable Pitohui, Pitohui kirhocephalus
• Hooded Pitohui, Pitohui dichrous
• White-bellied Pitohui, Pitohui incertus
• Rusty Pitohui, Pitohui ferrugineus
• Crested Pitohui, Pitohui cristatus
• Black Pitohui, Pitohui nigrescens

Pitohuis are brightly coloured, omnivorous birds. The skin and feathers of some pitohuis, especially the Variable and Hooded Pitohuis, contain powerful neurotoxic alkaloids of the batrachotoxin group (also secreted by the Colombian poison dart frogs, genus Phyllobates). It is believed that these serve the birds as a chemical defence, either against ectoparasites or against visually guided predators such as snakes, raptors or humans. (Dumbacher, et al., 1992) The birds probably do not produce batrachotoxin themselves. It is most likely that the toxins come from the Choresine genus of beetles, part of the bird's diet.[1] (Dumbacher, et al., 2004). Due to their toxicity, Papua New Guineans call the pitohuis rubbish birds as they are not good for eating; however in desperate times they can be consumed but only after the feathers and skin are removed and the flesh is coated in charcoal and then roasted. (Piper, 2007)

The Hooded Pitohui is brightly coloured, 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.

It has been suggested that the birds' bright colours are an example of aposematism (warning colouration), and the similarity of the Hooded Pitohui and some forms of the Variable Pitohui might then be an example of Müllerian mimicry, in which dangerous species gain a mutual advantage by sharing colouration, so that an encounter with either species trains a predator to avoid both. (Dumbacher & Fleischer, 2001)

See also

• Batrachotoxin
• Toxic birds

References

• del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2007). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 9788496553422
• Dumbacher JP, Beehler BM, Spande TF, Garraffo HM, Daly JW (1992). "Homobatrachotoxin in the genus Pitohui: chemical defense in birds?". Science 258 (5083): 799–801. doi:10.1126/science.1439786. PMID 1439786. 
• Dumbacher JP, Fleischer RC (2001). "Phylogenetic evidence for colour pattern convergence in toxic pitohuis: Mullerian mimicry in birds?". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268 (1480): 1971–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2001.1717. PMC 1088837. PMID 11571042. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1088837. 
• Dumbacher JP, Wako A, Derrickson SR, Samuelson A, Spande TF, Daly JW (2004). "Melyrid beetles (Choresine): a putative source for the batrachotoxin alkaloids found in poison-dart frogs and toxic passerine birds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101 (45): 15857–60. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407197101. PMC 528779. PMID 15520388. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=528779. 
• Piper, R. Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals, Greenwood Press

External links

• FUGU, POISON FROGS, AND PITOHUIS by Harold B. White
• Picture of a hooded pitohui at the Wayback Machine