By Susan Milius
Ifrita kowaldi, a blue-capped handful with the tree-poking habits of a nuthatch, concentrates in its feathers and skin the same alkaloids that defend poison dart frogs. This explains why the bird’s plucked carcass can burn a person’s mouth as a chili pepper does, researchers report.
Until recently, ornithologists didn’t realize any birds grew toxic feathers, says John Dumbacher of the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. But in 1992, he and his colleagues published the first full-fledged chemical confirmation of a bird toxin, a wicked cocktail in the bright feathers of New Guinea’s Pitohoui genus.