[güttsfükk]

It is believed to be only the second time such a carnivorous plant has been documented eating a bird

A killer plant has killed and "eaten" a blue tit at a garden nursery in Somerset.

Nurseryman Nigel Hewitt-Cooper from West Pennard discovered one of his pitcher plants had captured the bird while inspecting his tropical garden.

He said he was "absolutely staggered" to find it had caught the creature.

It is believed to be only the second time such a carnivorous plant has been documented eating a bird anywhere in the world.

"I've got a friend who's studied these particular plants extensively in the wild and he's never found evidence of any of them having caught birds," said Mr Hewitt-Cooper.

"The other documented time was in Germany a few years ago and that was in cultivation, not in the wild."

'Become wedged'

"The larger ones frequently take frogs, lizards and mice, and the biggest ones have been found with rats in them, but to find a bird in one is pretty unusual."

The pitcher plant is a genus of Nepenthes from South East Asia which attracts and traps insects in a pool of liquid which it then digests.

Mr Hewitt-Cooper said he thought the blue tit had been attracted to the plant on Saturday by the insects and landed on its leaf.

"I think it must have leant in to pluck out an insect that was floating on the fluid inside, tipped in too far and become wedged and unable to get out."

Mr Hewitt-Cooper has been growing carnivorous plants such as pitcher plants, Venus fly traps and sundews for 30 years, and has won several gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-14416809

[MrCorpse]

stupid tit

[Karma]

Aww poor bird.

[kellyhound]

i luv tits.

[Blewvane]

It looks like a pussy.

[DollHead]

Poor bird

But I do love Pitcher plants. I've grown a bunch of them plus sundews, venus flytraps and butterworts. That's inside one of my pitchers. Its full of wasps.

[güttsfükk]

Originally Posted by Devil Mantis666 ↗

That's inside one of my pitchers. Its full of wasps.

cool picture
are these type of plants hard to maintain?

[Parannoyed]

Yer they look like a cool thing to have my room gets full of moths in the summer it would be good to watch them get trapped. Do they need any special conditions to grow?

[redelefant]

Only good bird is a dead bird that is devoured.

[DollHead]

Originally Posted by güttsfükk ↗

cool picture
are these type of plants hard to maintain?

Kinda depends on which one you get. There are 2 types of pitcher plants. That one picture you posted is a tropical one and the picture that I posted can be found in the United States. That one is a pitcher that is perfectly straight up. All carnivorous plants need distilled water (rain water). Water from hoses will kill them cause they can't absorb the minerals in them. And the soil you need to keep them in is part pete moss and part perlite. It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't. Its so much fun to watch them and they are gorgeous as you've probably seen. Fun fact with venus fly traps is that they die after they close 3 times.

http://www.blackjungleterrariumsupply.com/
http://cobraplant.com/

Those are 2 awesome sites I've bought from if you are interested. You can actually buy the pitcher in that picture you posted. Of course it won't start out that big but if you take care of it, it will grow big.