He was actually looking for birds of paradise at the time. In 1988, however, ornithologist Jack Dumbacher managed to catch a few hooded pitohuis in a mist net while out doing research in Papua New Guinea. But toxicity just wasn't a trait that scientists attributed to birds at the time, becoming a mere footnote of sorts. The bird had already been described as poisonous by western researchers as far back as 1895. 'Pitohui' itself is a Papuan term that translates to 'garbage bird', because they can't be eaten. But of course, anything without a Latin name was considered 'barbaric', and required some 'adjustment' at the time.īut even back then, the Melanesian people of Papua New Guinea knew to stay away from the bird. Back then it was placed in the genus Rectes as opposed to Pitohui – both being exactly the same genus. The bird was first described by French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850. The story behind the discovery of the hooded pitohui ( Pitohui dichrous), dubbed the world's first scientifically-confirmed poisonous bird, is actually pretty wild. Whether you consider this country a part of Southeast Asia or not, it's hard to deny its relatively close proximity, especially to Indonesia and the Philippines. It turns out, there are actually poisonous birds too, like the hooded pitohui, native to the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. But if you thought poisonous creatures were just limited to the conventional 'culprits', like bugs and snakes, you're dead-wrong. While a good majority of the ones we tend to come across are pretty harmless, some of them can be quite poisonous or venomous. We're all too familiar with creepy crawlies here in Southeast Asia.
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