Plant eats bird

This is a photo of bird being eaten by a plant.

According to a story from the BBC, it's not unusual for a carnivorous pitcher plant, such as this one, to get its "hands" on a frog, a mouse, or even a rat. But poultry is a rare dish.

The plants kill by tricking prey into investigating the pitcher, usually by offering sweet nectar. Once part of the way into the pitcher, the prey finds it impossible to climb back out. Then it drowns. And then the plant slowly dissolves it—Saarlac-like—over a long period of time.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: animals • botany • death • Delightful Creatures • Science • Weird

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JBarnes01

A lot like marriage.
wil9000

But at least the pitcher plant kills you before it digests you, un-Saarlac like.
Gillian Droeger

A smart bird would have pecked through the side of the plant to get the nectar.
- robinite
  
  yes. many birds are well known for their intelligence.
  - scotchmi_st
    
    Well, yes, many are in fact.
i_i

One of my childhood nightmare.
Boomer

I point to Nepenthe and I point to La Cage aux Folles. That’s all.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Keith-Burns/1775524590 Keith Burns

Nectar? I don’t even know her!
seyo

We need a plant that eats vegans.
rwmj

Why are the words “great tit” not mentioned here?
- Rob Cruickshank
  
  Because some people might not be able to look at pitchers of tits on the internet at work?
Teirhan

om nom nom nom nom.
Michael Lewinger

… Is the animal preserved somehow such as – not rotting ? would the fluids be antibacterial as well ?
bocomo

anybody else a bit terrified of this (in spite of the fact that i really like my chances vs. the plant)?

also…

“Feed me, Seymour!”
Antinous / Moderator

Best crime scene photo ever.

Also, I sent this to Maggie over the weekend and didn’t get credit. And I work for BB. So don’t complain to me about how your stories don’t get picked up.
- Gulliver
  
  There is no I in group blog.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Apparently there is in sans-serif fonts.
    - Gulliver
      
      Further evidence that typing without serifs is a bourgeois propaganda tool of the cult of individualism.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I thought that was a given.
      - Gulliver
        
        Only for those of us who grasp the existential importance of typographical purity. Decadent internet society has been corrupted by the word processor. Take heart, comrade, the revolution is patient and the One True Font will rise victorious!
http://www.facebook.com/OldKingGold Jeffrey Joseph Bowden

“WHY DO I NEED TO DISSOLVE IT IN MY MOUTH WHEN I HAVE A PERFECTLY GOOD BATHTUB UPSTAIRS?!?”
http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood

What’s funny is that it can’t digest feathers.* So it’ll eventually choke and die.

*Facts may not be actual facts.
Thomas Green

Tropical pitcher plants are pretty awesome in the literal sense of the word. Any plant that can consume an animal gets my vote for most evolutionarily bad a##
http://www.shun2u.com shun2u

I’ve seen this plant in Sarawak (Borneo Island) Malaysia. U know i am wonder how it digests the bird? How they get rid of the feather?
http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

OK, does no one else see what I see? Or am I just the least mature person here and no one else is willing to say it?
- Donald Petersen
  
  Most of us don’t usually see green there.
  - http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog
    
    Nor feathers. “Or: maybe that turns you on; maybe that’s how y’get your kicks. You and your good-time buddies.”