Most birds are harmless.
This one is poisonous.
In this minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into one of the strangest birds on Earth: the pitohui, a brightly colored songbird from New Guinea that carries powerful neurotoxins in its skin and feathers. 
The toxin is chemically similar to the same compounds found in some poison dart frogs, making the pitohui one of the very few known poisonous birds in the world. But how does a bird become poisonous in the first place?
🐦 What a pitohui actually looks like
☠️ How this bird stores toxins in its feathers and skin
🪲 The beetles responsible for its poison
🧠 Why scientists think the toxins may help defend against parasites
🤧 Why handling one can cause numbness, sneezing, burning skin, and watery eyes
🌴 Why indigenous communities call them “rubbish birds”
Along the way, the episode explores toxic animals, warning coloration, bird evolution, and the bizarre ecosystems of New Guinea—home to some of the weirdest wildlife on Earth.
If you love birding, ornithology, toxic animals, weird nature facts, or evolutionary biology, this is one bird you’ll never forget.
🎧 Part of our “Animals You’ve Probably Never Heard Of” minisode series.
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