Huia

This article is about the Huia, an extinct bird species. For the place, see Huia (place). For the frog genus, see Huia (genus).

Huia
Male (front) and female Huia
Conservation status
Extinct (1907)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Callaeidae
Genus:	Heteralocha Cabanis, 1851
Species:	H. acutirostris
Binomial name
Heteralocha acutirostris (Gould, 1837)
Synonyms
Neomorpha acutirostris Neomorpha crassirostris (male) Heteralocha gouldi

The Huia, Heteralocha acutirostris, was a species of New Zealand Wattlebird endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. This species became extinct in the early 20th century, primarily as a result of massive over hunting and widespread habitat destruction. The last accepted sighting was made by one W.W. Smith who saw three birds in the Tararua Ranges on 28 December 1907 but quite credible reports of further sightings were made as late as 1922.

The Huia is best known for the remarkable degree of sexual dimorphism displayed in bill shape. The male and female bore markedly different bills, though the plumage was similar. They were predominantly black birds with a green metallic sheen. The Huia held a special place in Māori culture as the most sacred bird of the New Zealand forests - their skins and feathers were valuable goods and they feature widely in the legends and stories of Māori oral tradition.

Description

The Huia had black plumage with a green metallic tinge and distinctive rounded bright orange wattles at the gape. In both sexes the beak was ivory white and greyish at the base.The legs and feet were long and bluish grey in colouration while the claws were light brown, the birds twelve long glossy black tail feathers, each tipped for 2.5-3 cmwith a broad band of white. It was the only bird known where the beaks of the male and female differed radically in size and shape. In fact, so different are these bills that when British taxonomists first obtained Huia specimens, they mistakenly identified the two sexes as separate species on the basis of this attribute. The male's beak was short (approximately 60 mm), slightly arched downwards and robust like that of a woodpecker, while the female's beak was much finer, long and curved downward (104 mm) like that of a hummingbird or honeyeater - a striking example of sexual dimorphism. Another, less obvious aspect of sexual dimorphism in this species was the size difference between the sexes, Males were 45 cm long with Females slighty larger at 48 cm in length. Huia had been little studied by Western naturalists before they were driven to extinction.

Huia Biology

Distribution and habitat

Subfossil and midden remains of Huia have been found throughout the North Island from Northland to Wellington; however their range appears to have contracted over time following Māori settlement (see Human induced decline and extinction) and by the time of European settlement in the 1840's birds were recorded only from the forests of the southern North Island below a line extending from the Raukumara Range in the east, across above the Kaimanawa Ranges to the Turakina River of the Rangitikei in the west. In the south their range extended to the Wairarapa and Rimutaka Range east of Wellington. Reports collected by Buller and a single waiata (Māori song) suggest that Huia were once also found in the Marlborough and Nelson districts of the South Island but there is no other evidence. The bird shares its name with a small community in the Waitakere Ranges, where it was presumably once found.

Behaviour

Mounted Female Huia; note the well developed, long legs and long downwardly curved beak

Huia moved mainly on foot through the canopy or over the forest floor in long leaps and bounds on their strong legs, like the surviving New Zealand Wattlebirds, the saddleback and the kokako, they were weak fliers and flew only over short distances with their rounded wings. The tail was often spread to help the bird balance as they clung vertically to tree trunks.A quiet, social bird, the Huia was monogamous with pairs bonding for life; when birds were found in the forest they were typically in these breeding pairs although sometimes groups of 4 or more were encountered. The pair bond was apparently very strong in Huia and Buller records both in captivity and the wild that the male and female of a pair would keep near each other at all times, constantly uttering a "low affectionate twitter", he also observed the 2 birds of a pair he held in captivity frequently grooming each other. When the male of this pair was killed accidentally the female "manifesting the utmost distress pined for her mate and died 10 days afterwards" - a Māori man in the 19th century commented in a similar vein; "I was always told by my old people that a pair of Huia lived on most affectionate terms..If the male died first the female died soon after of grief". Their alarm call was a shrill whistle which was easily imitated, bringing them to investigate - Huia were apparently quite fearless of humans, and their are records of birds being captured simply by hand and of females allowing themselves to be handled on the nest. An imitation of the bird's call survives as a recording of a 1909 Huia Search Team member, Henare Haumana whistling the call (NZ Sound Archives). They were named after their loud distress call, a smooth, unslurred whistle sounding like the words "Who-are-you-o".

Feeding

Huia made their homes mainly in the mountainous regions of the North Island, descending to the lowland plains forests in the winter and other periods of cold weather to forage for food . Sexual dimorphism of the bill structure resulted in feeding strategies that differed radically between the sexes: The male used his bill to chisel into outer layers of decaying or live wood, whereas the female probed into areas inaccessible to the male, e.g. burrows of insect larvae in living wood. Studies of the anatomy of the male bird's head and neck musculature also suggest the male was capable of "gaping"; inserting his bill into rotting wood and forcing the two halves open to split the wood.Diet consisted of Weta, Huhu Grubs as well as other insects and their larvae, spiders, and small berries.

Contrary to the popularized notion, the meals were not usually shared between pairs (although it may have occasionally occurred to strengthen the pair bond). Also, the birds did generally not cooperate in feeding, at least not in a strict sense. All such reports are based on misreading of a single account by Buller, which in any case referred to a pair kept in captivity. Rather, the differing bills represent an extreme example of niche differentiation, by which intraspecific competition between the sexes was reduced. Thus, the species as a whole could utilize a wider range of food sources better. This phenomenon is not unique, but was most pronounced in the huia; woodhoopoes and some birds of paradiseshow a similar, but less extreme dimorphism, and the bills of many hummingbirds show sexual differences in length uncoupled to variations in body size, for example.

Reproduction

Little is known about the Huia's reproduction; the breeding season was thought to be early summer, with the birds constructing a saucer-shaped nest of dried grass, leaves, withered herbs, sticks and twigs with a small, shallow central cup made of softer materials to cushion and insulate the eggs. The clutch size was between two to four eggs, each greyish in colour with purple and brown speckles and measuring 45 by 30 mm. Most Huia nests were found near the summits of ranges where they favoured hollow trees as shelters.

Parasites

A species of phtilopterid louse has been described from the huia. Rallicola extinctus formerly considered the only species of a separate genus Huiacola ("Huia inhabitant"), apparently became extinct with its host

Huia and humans

Place in Māori and New Zealand European culture

Maori man from the Hauraki district wearing Huia tail feathers in his hair and a feather cloak

The Huia held a special place in Māori culture as the most scared bird of the New Zealand forests. According to Māori legend, the Huia was one of the birds attained from the heavens by Tāwhaki so that his wife could decorate her hair with its feathers - Huia feathers thus being celestial in origin were very tapu (sacred) and only chiefs of high rank and their close relatives could wear them.

Some sources hold that in creation times Huia had been appointed one of the 4 guardians of the twelth heaven. Its tail feathers, affixed by Huru-te-arangi, the personification of one of the four winds, were proof of its status and also represented the twelve months of the year and the twelve stages of development in a child before it is born. On earth Huia were the leaders of the Hākuturi, the spirit guardians of the forest, which included Whiteheads and Riflemen. The Huia was a bird of omens; a single feather was worn as a tailsman against misfortune. If a newly married man dreamed of Huia feathers it meant his wife would conceive a daughter - if he dreamed of Kōtuku feathers it implied the conception of a son.

The bold and inquisitive nature of the Huia made them particularly easy to capture or kill. Māori attracted the birds close by imitating their call and then captured them with a tari (carved pole with a noose at the end) or snare or otherwise killed them with clubs or spears. Often they exploited the strong pair bond between Huia by first taking one bird of a pair, which would call out in distress, attracting its mate which could then be easily captured in a similar manner to the first.

Although the birds from which they were taken were restricted in range to the southern North Island, such was the value of Huia feathers that they were passed from tribe to tribe and thus reached the far north and south island - they were either traded for other valuable goods such as greenstone and sharks teeth or given as tokens of friendship and respect. They were kept safe in intricately carved boxes called waka huia which were hung from the ceilings of chief's houses More than just marks of rank, Huia feathers were worn at funerals and used to decorate the heads of the deceased. The 12 feathers of the Huia left joined at the base were used as a war plume called the marereko which was worn by high chiefs into battle. Huia were kept in captivity in small cages for the sake of their tail feathers which were plucked as they reached maturity - they were also kept by Māori as pets and like the Tui, they could be trained to say a few words; there is also a record of a tame Huia kept at a colonist hamlet in Forty-mile bush in the 19th century.

Huia skins had value too, birds were skinned with the beak, skull and wattles attached, while the legs and wings were removed. The skins were dried out over fires and worn as ornaments from the neck or ears, or made into hats. Although not hunted for that purpose, Huia were considered excellent eating.

Human induced decline and extinction

Several naturalists, including Buller, noted that the birds were already in decline when European settlers arrived. The Huia's distinctive white-tipped black tail feathers were often worn by Māori chiefs as a sign of their status. Such feathers were revered as taonga (treasures) by Māori. The wearing of feathers as ornaments was later adopted by Pākehā women as a symbol of social standing. The birds were inquisitive and readily attracted by imitation of their call and subsequently shot and trapped easily — in 1888, a party of 11 Māori obtained 646 Huia skins from the forest between the Manawatu Gorge and Akitio. In February 1892, regulations making it illegal to kill or take Huia were passed; however, enforcement was not taken seriously.

The visit of the Duke of York, later King George V, to New Zealand in 1901 produced a frenzied demand for Huia feathers, especially after the Duke wore a Huia tail feather in his hatband. The price of feathers was reportedly pushed to one pound each. The then Governor General, the Earl of Onslow, tried to provide further legal protection for the Huia, but the bird was reported extinct shortly afterwards. The last "official" sighting was on 28 December 1907 - but lingering reports after this date suggest the species extinction came a little later. A man familiar with the species reported seeing three Huia in Gollans Valley behind York Bay (between Petone and Eastbourne, Wellington) on 28 December 1922. Huia had been seen many times in this area before (there were also reports of sightings here in 1912 and 1913) and this area of mixed beech (Nothofagus) and podocarp forest was well within the bird's known range. However no effort was made by naturalists from the Wellington Museum to investigate.

External links

• TerraNature page on huia
• TerraNature pages on New Zealand wattlebirds
• Template:IUCN2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is listed as extinct

Further reading

• Gill, B. & Martinson, P. (1991) New Zealand's Extinct Birds Random Century, Auckland