The Hooded Pitohui, Pitohui dichrous is a songbird

Songbird

A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds . Another name that is sometimes seen as scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin oscen, "a songbird"...

 of New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

 with black and orange plumage.

This species and its two close relatives, the Variable Pitohui

Variable Pitohui

The Variable Pitohui is a species of bird in the Colluricinclidae family.It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea....

 and the Brown Pitohui, were the first documented poisonous birds. A neurotoxin

Neurotoxin

A neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells , usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels. Some sources are more general, and define the effect of neurotoxins as occurring at nerve tissue...

 called homobatrachotoxin found in the birds' skin and feathers, causes numbness and tingling in those touching the bird.

The Hooded Pitohui acquires its poison from part of its diet, the Choresine beetle

Beetle

Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...

s of the Melyridae

Melyridae

Melyridae are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. The family Melyridae contains 520 species in 58 genera in North America. Most are elongate-oval, soft-bodied beetles 10 mm long or less. Many are brightly colored with brown or red and black...

 family.