# Hooded Pitohui, One of the World’s Only Toxic Birds > [!Summary] > > Hooded pitohui feathers have the same batrachotoxins as poison dart frog skin, which come from small melyrid beetles and are super toxic and hurt a lot. ## Highlights ### > As Jack struggled to free the pitohuis from his nets, they scratched his hands and the cuts hurt more than they should have. He put his fingers in his mouth to dull the pain, but that only made his tongue tingle and burn. ### > batrachotoxins – extremely potent neurotoxic steroidal alkaloids that in high doses can lead to paralysis, cardiac arrest and death – in the tiny poison dart frogs of South America. > > Gram for gram, it is one of the most toxic natural substances known to science. In 1992, Daly found that exact same toxin in the feather fibres of the hooded pitohui. ### > Twelve years later, with the help of the Papua New Guinea locals, Jack discovered that the pitohuis were getting their batrachotoxins from the small melyrid beetles they fed on. Relevant to [[2020.08.17 Beetles]]