Birds have some amazing solutions to life's problems.
Like, the problem of predators. Normally, birds will just hide or fly away from predators.
But there are some other birds that have found a different solution.
They are literally poisonous! let's find out how, and why, these poisonous birds exist.
The Pitohui are a group of brightly colored birds native to New Guinea.
And the bright color is a warning. The skin and feathers of this bird contain a nerve
poison called batrachotoxin. Batrachotoxin is the same deadly poison produced in poison dart frogs.
It permanently binds to nerve cells and turns off their ability to send
and receive signals. For an exposed animal this results in numbness, paralysis, or death.
Almost all species of Pitohui have this poison, and the most poisonous is the Hooded Pitohui.
Just touching the bird exposes the skin to batrachotoxin and causes numbness.
But none of the Pitohui actually produce batrachotoxin. It comes from their diet, by eating
poisonous beetles like this one. These beetles make their own batrachotoxin, ideally protecting
themselves from predators. But their poison does not harm the Pitohui. I couldn't find information
about why the Pitohui is not poisoned, but in the poison dart frogs it's because they have modified
nerve channels that are unaffected by the poison. The Pitohui eat these beetles and concentrate
the poison in their feathers and skin. Then, if another animal tries to eat the Pitohui they get
a mouthful of batrachotoxin. Over time, predators have learned to stay away from the Pitohui.
And there are more unrelated groups of birds that have found these poisonous beetles.
The Blue-capped Ifrit also stores batrachotoxin in its feathers. So does the Rufous Shrikethrush. An
interesting thing about the Rufous Shrikethrush is that it does not use warning colors to
deter predators. This suggests a second use for batrachotoxin, which is to deter parasites. For
future reference, a good way to keep off mites and other parasites is to be coated in neurotoxins.
Those three birds are native to New Guinea. But an African bird called
the Spur-winged Goose does the same thing, eating beetles and storing their poison.
These beetles are called Blister Beetles, and the poison is cantharidin. Cantharidin causes blisters
and chemical burns, so good name Blister Beetles. The Spur-winged Goose is able to eat these beetles
without harm, which is a useful adaptation in its own way. But then it stores cantharidin
in its tissues, so anything eating the goose will be chemically burned or poisoned. For the
affected goose this is not helpful, as they have already been eaten. But predators will either die
or get a lesson in leaving the other Spur-winged Geese alone.
Another bird that stores poison is the European Quail! During their migration they eat plants,
and an unknown plant will turn a quail poisonous. The poison is conine The poison is stored in their
fat and muscle. Not all quail are poisonous, and not every predator who eats a poisonous quail
will be affected. But for those that are, the predator will experience muscle cell breakdown.
There are a few other bird species confirmed poisonous.
Like the Australian Bronzewing and Ruffed Grouse. But there are hundreds more species which are
distasteful to humans. We're probably not done discovering poisonous birds!
Birds have so many different survival strategies to help them to succeed!
Poisonous birds are just a reminder that there is so much more out there to learn.
Thanks for increasing your knowledge about birds. You can watch another video on this channel to
keep learning about animal adaptations, or you can subscribe to know when new videos come out.
Thanks for stopping by this week to learn what makes Life awesome!