Help me I suffer from "Ornithophobia" :)

[Reciprocity]

I think these Vulturine guineafowl are out to get me. They all look like Mr. Burns to me.



Ornithophobia: An abnormal and persistent fear of birds. Sufferers from ornithophobia experience undue anxiety about encountering and even being attacked by birds although they may realize their fears are quite irrational.
Ornithophobia was epitomized in a 1963 film scripted by the novelist Daphne Du Maurier and the detective story writer Evan Hunter and directed by the inimicable Alfred Hitchcock -- The Birds. Birds suddenly start attacking people in ever-greater numbers and ever-greater viciousness in this memorable and very frightening movie.
The word "ornithophobia" is derived from the Greek and "ornithos" (bird) and "phobos" (fear).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Here's a bird to worry about:

It's called a pitohui. It lives in New Guinea and it's poisonous. It's probably the world's only poisonous bird.

[Reciprocity]

2. Good lord the things I have learned from DU

Some Birds Use Chemical Defense
The Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous) is indeed a rare bird. Dumbacher et al. from the Smithsonian Institute reported in 1992 that the distinctive orange and black New Guinean bird has a potent neurotoxin in its feathers and skin, which serves as a defense against predators. Such a protective chemical defense is very rare in birds and the Dumbacher paper was the first to identify an avian toxin. Surprisingly the chemical agent, homobatrachotoxin, is an alkaloid found in the skin of poisonous frogs. It appears that neither the birds nor the frogs make the neurotoxin but probably acquire it in their diet. The hooded pitohui's defense is so good that other birds, which do not possess the toxic agent, mimic the distinctive coloration of the pitohui to fake predators who know to avoid the toxic bird.

Dumbacher and colleagues recently reported another New Guinean bird, the blue-capped ifrita (Ifrita kowaldi), also bears toxic chemicals in its feathers and skin. In all, 5 species in the genus Pitohui and now the Ifrita have been found using a chemical defense mechanism. Several chemical variants of batrachotoxins were identified including three newly identified agents

[ret5hd]

3. ha...think of the guy that discovered THAT bird...

"Heeeere birdie birdie birdie...heeere birdie birdie birdie...OUCH, God damnit!" Thump.