The huia ( ; ; Heteralocha acutirostris) is an extinct species of New Zealand wattlebird, endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. The last confirmed sighting of a huia was in 1907, although there was another credible sighting in 1924.

It was already a rare bird before the arrival of Europeans, confined to the Ruahine, Tararua, Rimutaka and Kaimanawa mountain ranges in the south-east of the North Island. In 1850, Jean Cabanis replaced the name Neomorpha, which had been previously used for a cuckoo genus, with Heteralocha. In 1888 Sir Walter Buller wrote: "I have deemed it more in accordance with the accepted rules of zoological nomenclature to adopt the first of the two names applied to the species by Mr Gould; and the name Neomorpha having been previously used in ornithology, it becomes necessary to adopt that of Heteralocha, proposed by Dr Cabanis for this form."

The huia appears to be a remnant of an early expansion of passerines in the country of New Zealand and is the largest of the three members of the family Callaeidae, the New Zealand wattlebirds; the others are the saddleback and the kōkako. The only close relative to the family is the stitchbird; their taxonomic relationships with other birds remain to be determined. A molecular study of the nuclear RAG-1 and c-mos genes of the three species within the family proved inconclusive, the data providing most support for either a basally diverging kōkako or huia.

Description

thumb|Painting by [[J. G. Keulemans of a female, a male, and a white female]]

The huia had black plumage with a green metallic tinge and distinctive rounded bright orange wattles at the gape. In both sexes, the eyes were brown; Huia had twelve long glossy black tail feathers, each tipped for Immature huia had small pale wattles, duller plumage flecked with brown, and a reddish-buff tinge to the white tips of the tail feathers. and the feathers on the neck and head were darker.

Although sexual dimorphism in bill shape is found in other birds, such as the riflebirds, sicklebills and other wood-excavating birds including some species of woodpecker, it was most pronounced in the huia. The beak of the male was short at approximately and slightly arched downwards

upright|thumb|alt=Painting showing two birds heads. The bill of one is long and curved, the other is shorter and stouter|An 1830s painting by [[John Gould illustrating the remarkable sexual dimorphism of the huia's beak. The female's beak (top) was finer, longer, and more curved than the male's (below)]]

There are two possible explanations for the evolution of this sexual difference in bill shape. The most widely supported is that it allowed birds of different sexes to utilise different food sources. This divergence may have arisen because of a lack of competitors in these foraging niches in the North Island forest ecosystems. to Wellington and the Aorangi Range in the far south. Only a few huia are known from the extensive pitfall deposits in the karst of the Waitomo Caves area and they are also rare or absent in fossil deposits in the central North Island and Hawke's Bay; it seems to have preferred habitats that are not well sampled by the deposits known at present. By the time of European settlement in the 1840s it was only found south of a line from the Raukumara Range in the east, across the Kaimanawa Range, to the Turakina River in the Rangitikei in the west. and there is no other evidence of the species' presence.

thumb|alt=Two large insect larvae in tunnels in a tree branch|A favourite food of the huia: the [[larvae of the huhu beetle (Prionoplus reticularis)]]

The huia foraged mainly on decaying wood.

Insects and spiders were taken from decaying wood, from under bark, mosses and lichens, and from the ground. Huia foraged either alone, in pairs, or in small flocks of up to five, which were probably family groups. The sexual dimorphism of the bill structure gave rise to feeding strategies that differed radically between the sexes. The male used its adze-like bill to chisel and rip into the outer layers of decaying wood, Once the bird had secured a meal, it flew to a perch with the insect in its feet. The huia stripped its meal of any hard parts, then tossed the remainder up, caught, and swallowed it. of a pair kept in captivity obtaining wood-boring beetle larvae. According to this misunderstanding, which has become part of ecological folklore, the male would tear at the wood and open larval tunnels, thus allowing the female to probe deeply into the tunnels with her long, pliant bill.

upright|thumb|alt=Skull of a bird drawn in outline, side view, back view and view from underneath|The skull had hollows, digastric fossae, accommodating the strong muscles that open the bill

The New Zealand forest relies heavily on frugivorous birds for seed dispersal: about 70% of the woody plants have fruits that are probably dispersed by birds, which included the huia. The range of fruits eaten by the huia is difficult to establish: Huia were often silent. When they did vocalise, their calls could carry considerable distances – some were audible from up to away through dense forest. was only known to live on the huia, and apparently became extinct with its host. In 2008, a new species of feather mite, Coraciacarus muellermotzfeldi, was described from dried corpses found in the feathers of a huia skin held by a European museum. While the genus Coraciacarus has a wide range of hosts globally, the presence of a representative of the genus on a passerine bird was an "enigmatic phenomenon". The breeding season for mating, building nests, laying eggs and raising young is thought to have been late spring (October–November). The bold and inquisitive nature of the huia made it particularly easy to capture. The marereko, described by Edward Robert Tregear as an "ancient war-plume", consisted of twelve huia feathers. The highly valued pōhoi was an ornament made from the skin of the huia: the bird was skinned with the beak, skull and wattles attached and the legs and wings removed, The New Zealand sixpence coin, minted between 1933 and 1966, featured a female huia on the reverse.

The degree to which the huia was known and admired in New Zealand is reflected in the large number of suburban and geographical features which are named after the species. There are several roads and streets named after the huia in the North Island, with several in Wellington (including Huia Road in Days Bay – not far from where one of the last sightings of this species occurred in the early 1920s in the forests of East Harbour Regional Park) and also in Auckland, where there is even a Huia township in West Auckland (although the township is named after a Waikato Tainui chief of the same name). A river on the west coast of the South Island and the Huiarau Ranges in the central North Island are also named after the bird. The species was once found living in great abundance in the forests of these mountains:

Tail feathers of the extinct huia are very rare and they have become a collector's item. In May 2024 a single huia feather sold at auction in Auckland for NZ$46,521.50, making it the most expensive feather ever sold in the world. The previous record was another huia feather sold in 2010.

In the 2016 New Zealand film Hunt for the Wilderpeople two of the characters encounter a huia, and eventually set out to obtain proof of their sighting. Reviewers asserted that in the film the huia is significant as a "uniquely indigenous" symbol that "represents harmony with nature and the wild."

Extinction

upright|thumb|alt=Man wearing traditional Māori cloak with two feathers in his hair|A Māori man from the Hauraki district wearing huia tail feathers in his hair (photo before 1886).

The huia was found throughout the North Island before humans arrived in New Zealand. Māori are estimated to have arrived around 750 years ago, and by the arrival of European settlers in the 1840s, habitat destruction, hunting, and introduced rats had reduced the bird's range to the southern North Island.

Like the extinctions of other New Zealand birds such as the piopio in the 19th century, the decline of the huia was poorly studied. Massive deforestation occurred in the North Island at this time, particularly in the lowlands of southern Hawkes Bay, the Manawatū and the Wairarapa, as land was cleared by European settlers for agriculture. The huia was particularly vulnerable to this as it could only live in old-growth forest where there were abundant rotting trees filled with wood-boring insect larvae. It seems it could not survive in regenerating, secondary forests. and by museums all over the world. Several thousand huia were exported overseas as part of this trade.

The rampant and unsustainable hunting was not just financially motivated: it also had a more philosophical, fatalistic aspect. It was widely assumed that the plants and animals of New Zealand's forest ecosystems would be quickly replaced by more vigorous and competitive European species. Shooting season notices ceased listing the huia as a protected species in 1901, Sightings of the huia were also reported there in 1912 and 1913. Despite this, naturalists from the Dominion Museum in Wellington did not investigate the reports. The last credible reports of huia come from the forests of Te Urewera National Park, with one from near Mt Urutawa in 1952 and final sightings near Lake Waikareiti in 1961 and 1963. The tribe Ngāti Huia agreed in principle to support the endeavour, which would be carried out at the University of Otago, and a California-based Internet start-up volunteered $100,000 of funding. However, Sandy Bartle, curator of birds at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, said that the complete huia genome could not be derived from museum skins because of the poor state of the DNA, and cloning was therefore unlikely to succeed.

References

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Huia specimens at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Huia calls (imitation)