Huia   by jekky

(3411, ‘Taxonomy and naming br Australian ornithologist John Gould described the Huia in 1837 The specific epithet acutirostris derives from Latin acutus meaning sharp pointed and rostris meaning beak and refers to the beak of the female With its short bill the male was first described as a separate species with the epithet crassirostris from the Latin crassus meaning thick or heavy The Huia appears to be a remnant of an early expansion of passerines in New Zealand and is one of three New Zealand wattlebirds of the family Callaeidae the others being the endangered Tieke or Saddleback and the Kkako New Zealand Wattlebirds have no close relatives apart from the Stitchbird and their taxonomic relationships to other birds remain to be determined br Description br 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 while the claws were light brown The eyes were brown The bird had twelve long glossy black tail feathers each tipped for 2 53 160 cm 1 160 in with a broad band of white The immature Huia had duller plumage that was covered in brown and the white tips of the tail feathers were tinged a reddish buff colour The wattles were small and pale The beak of the young female was only slightly curved Mori referred to certain Huia as huia arikiiterally chiefly Huia The huia ariki had brownish plumage streaked with grey and the feathers on the neck and head were darker This variant may have been a partial albino or perhaps such birds were simply of great age Several true albino Huia were recorded br Although sexual dimorphism in bill shape is found in other birds such as the riflebirds and sicklebills it was most pronounced in the Huia The beak of the male was short at approximately 60 160 mm 2 3 160 in and slightly arched downwards and robust like that of a woodpecker while the female s beak was finer longer at around 104 160 mm 4 160 in and curved downward like that of a hummingbird or honeyeater Another less obvious aspect of the Huia s sexual dimorphism was the size difference between the sexes Males were 45 160 cm 18 160 in long while females were larger at 48 160 cm 19 160 in in length Additionally the tail of the male was about 20 160 mm 78 160 in in length and the wingspan was between 210 and 220 160 mm 8 2 8 6 160 in while the female s tail was 195 to 200 160 mm 7 6 7 8 160 in and the female s wingspan was 200 to 205 160 mm 7 88 160 in br Male br Female br Distribution and habitat br The Huia mainly inhabited the mountainous regions throughout the North Island from Northland to Wellington where the subfossil and midden remains have been found Its range appears to have contracted following Mori settlement By the time of European settlement in the 1840s the bird was found only in the forests of the southern North Island 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 In the south its range extended to the Wairarapa and Rimutaka Range east of Wellington Reports collected by Walter Buller and a single waiata Mori song suggest that Huia were once also found in the Marlborough and Nelson districts of the South Island however there is no other evidence of the species presence br Ecology and behaviour br Mounted female Huia note the well developed long legs and long downwardly curved beak br Like the surviving New Zealand wattlebirds the saddleback and the kokako the Huia used its rounded wings to fly short distances but preferred to use its strong legs to move in long leaps and bounds through the canopy or over the forest floor The tail was spread to help the bird balance as it clung vertically to tree trunks A quiet social bird the Huia was monogamous with pairs bonding for life The bird was usually found in breeding pairs although sometimes groups of four or more were encountered Walter Buller records that a pair would always keep close to each other constantly uttering a low affectionate twitter even when in captivity He also observed that a pair he held in captivity would frequently groom each other When the male of this pair was accidentally killed the female manifesting the utmost distress pined for her mate and died 10 days afterwards A Mori man in the 19th century recalled that 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 The bird was named for its loud distress call a smooth unslurred whistle sounding like the words Who are you o If this call was imitated the bird would come to investigate The Huia had no fear of people and therefore could be captured easily by hand Females also allowed themselves to be handled on the nest An imitation of the bird s call survives as a recording of 1909 Huia Search Team member Henare Haumana whistling the call br 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 was only known to live on the Huia and apparently became extinct with its host br Feeding br Huia pair br The Huia mainly inhabited the mountainous regions of the North Island descending in winter or in periods of cold weather to lowland forests on the plains to forage for food Its diet consisted of insects and their larvae including weta and huhu beetle spiders as well as small berries The nocturnal huhu larvae seemed to be the bird s preferred meal The sexual dimorphism of the bill structure gave rise to feeding strategies that differed radically between the sexes The male used its bill to chisel into the outer layers of decaying or live wood whereas the female probed areas inaccessible to the male such as the burrows of insect larvae in living wood Studies of the anatomy of the male head and neck musculature also suggest that the male was capable of gaping which involved the bird inserting its bill into rotting wood to split the wood Once the Huia had secured a meal the bird flew to a perch with the insect in its feet The Huia stripped its meal of any hard parts then tossed the remainder up and catching it with its bill swallowed it A pair did not cooperate in feeding at least not in a strict sense All such reports are based on misunderstanding of an account by Buller which referred to a pair kept in captivity Rather the divergent bills represent an extreme example of niche differentiation by which intraspecific competition between the sexes was reduced This allowed the species to exploit a wide range of food sources br Reproduction br Little is known about the Huia s reproduction however the breeding season was thought to be early summer when the birds constructed a saucer shaped nest of dried grass leaves sticks and twigs with a small shallow central cup made of soft materials to cushion and insulate the eggs The nest was built either in a hollow tree or in a mass of dense vegetation Nesting took place in November The clutch size was two to four eggs which were greyish with purple and brown speckles and measured 45 by 30 160 mm 1 8 by 1 5 in Most Huia nests were found near the summits of mountain ranges br Relationship with humans br In culture br Tukukino a chief from the Hauraki district wearing a phoi ornament made from a Huia skin circa 1880 br In Mori culture the white heron and the huia were not normally eaten but were rare birds treasured for their precious plumes worn by people of high rank The bold and inquisitive nature of the Huia made it particularly easy to capture Mori attracted the Huia by imitating its call and then captured it with a tari a carved pole with a noose at the end or snare or killed it with clubs or long spears Often they exploited the strong pair bond by capturing one of a pair which would then call out attracting its mate which could then be easily captured Although not usually hunted for food the Huia was considered excellent eating br Although the Huia s range was restricted to the southern North Island its feathers were valued highly and they were exchanged amongst tribes for other valuable goods such as greenstone and shark teeth or given as tokens of friendship and respect Through this trade the feathers reached the far north and the far south of New Zealand They were stored in intricately carved boxes called waka huia which were hung from the ceilings of chief s houses Huia feathers were worn at funerals and used to decorate the heads of the deceased The marereko described by Edward Robert Tregear as an ancient war plume consisted of twelve Huia feathers The phoi an ornament made from the skin of the Huia was highly valued The bird was skinned with the beak skull and wattles attached while the legs and wings were removed The skin was carefully dried and the resulting phoi ornament was worn from the neck or ears Female Huia beaks have been known to be used in the creation of jewellery such as brooches br A captured Huia would be kept in a small cage so that its tail feathers could be plucked as they grew to full size The bird was also kept by Mori as a pet and like the Tui it could be trained to say a few words There is also a record of a tame Huia kept by European settlers in a small village in the Forty mile bush in the 19th century br Huia on 3 pence 1898 New Zealand stamp br New Zealand and the Cook Islands have released several postage stamps portraying the Huia br Extinction br The Huia occurred throughout the North Island before humans arrived in New Zealand The Mori arrived around 800 years ago and by the time European settlers arrived in the 1840s habitat destruction and hunting had reduced the bird s range to the southern North Island However Mori hunting pressures on the Huia were limited to some extent by traditional protocols The main hunting season was from May to July when the bird s plumage was in prime condition while a rhui hunting ban was enforced in spring and summer to allow the species numbers to recover It was not until European settlement that the Huia was truly threatened Its numbers began to decline due to three factors widespread deforestation introduction of mammalian predators and overhunting Another possible cause of extinction is disease but like the extinctions of other New Zealand birds in the 19th century such as the Piopio the decline of the Huia was poorly studied Because it spent a lot of time on the ground the Huia would have been particularly vulnerable to mammalian predators especially ship rats Cats and mustelids In the 19th century massive deforestation occurred on the North Island particularly in the lowlands of southern Hawkes Bay the Manawatu and the Wairarapa as land was cleared by European settlers for agriculture The Huia was particularly vulnerable to this because it appeared that it could only live in old growth forest where there were plenty of rotting trees filled with insect larvae It seems it could not survive in regenerating secondary forests Although the mountainous part of their former range was not deforested the lowland forests of the valleys below where Huia took refuge in winter and cold weather were systematically destroyed Habitat destruction and the predations of introduced species were problems faced by all New Zealand birds but in addition to these the Huia faced massive pressures from hunting br Huia were sought after as mounted specimens by collectors and museums all over the world who were interested in its pronounced sexual dimorphism and its beauty The hunting of Huia for this purpose was initially done by naturalists Austrian taxidermist Andreas Reischek took 212 pairs as specimens for the natural history museum in Vienna over a period of 10 years and Walter Buller collected 18 in just one of several expeditions to the Rimutaka ranges in 1883 However others keen to profit from the decimation of the species soon joined in Buller records that in 1883 a party of 11 Mori obtained 646 Huia skins from the forest between the Manawatu Gorge and Akitio Ultimately several thousand Huia were exported overseas as part of this trade br Mori man from the Hauraki district wearing Huia tail feathers in his hair before 1886 br By the late 1880s both Mori and European settlers noticed a serious decline in Huia numbers and the chiefs of the Manawatu and the Wairarapa placed a rhui on the Tararua range to prevent the killing of the bird In February 1892 the Wild Birds Protection Act was amended to include the Huia making it illegal to kill the bird however enforcement was not taken seriously A recommendation was also made that island sanctuaries be set up for endangered native birds however the new bird sanctuaries such as Kapiti Island and Little Barrier Island were never stocked with the Huia A live pair destined to be transferred to Kapiti in 1893 was instead appropriated by Buller who bent the law to gain permission to take them to England br The visit of the Duke and Duchess of York later King George V and Queen Mary to New Zealand in 1901 was celebrated throughout the land and at an official Mori welcome in Rotorua a guide took a Huia feather from her hair and placed it in the band of the Duke s hat as a token of respect Soon many people in England and New Zealand wanted to emulate this royal fashion’)

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