The Huia

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There was something very special about the huia – the male and female birds had very different beaks. The male's beak was short and straight and the females beak was long and curved (can you tell which is the female and male huia?)

The huia was very distinctive (easy to recognise) because of its beak, beautiful black feathers, the tail feathers tipped with white, and its bright orange wattle. The huia was related to the saddleback and the kokako, they are all wattle-birds (can you see the huia’s orange wattle?)

Fossils show that the huia could once be found throughout the North Island of New Zealand.

When European settlers arrived in New Zealand the huia was found only in the lower half of the North Island, from East Cape to Wellington. This tells us that the number of huia was in decline before Europeans arrived in New Zealand.

Domestic dogs and the Polynesian rat were both introduced to New Zealand by Maori. Huia chicks would have been killed by the Polynesian rat (kiore) and adult huia may have been killed by dogs. Maori also cleared areas of forest that would have previously been the home to many birds, including the huia.

The huia was also considered ‘tapu’ or sacred by the Maori. To wear a huia tail feather or beak as ornamentation was a great honour, so huia were killed for their feathers and beaks.

European settlers introduced more predators to New Zealand – more rats, stoats, dogs and cats. More forest was cleared for farming and towns, destroying the homes of New Zealand’s birds.

But a big threat to the huia was hunting.

Europeans wanted stuffed huia for their bird collections in museums and homes. Hundreds of huia were killed and shipped overseas to become exhibit pieces in museums and mansions.

Sir Walter Buller, who had been brought up in New Zealand and became extremely knowledgeable about New Zealand birds, wrote the following story in 1867……

In the 1880’s Maori chiefs in the Manawatu and Wairarapa regions put a tapu on the huia, which meant that it was illegal under Maori law to kill huia. The Maori chiefs asked the Europeans to stop killing the huia as well. There were even some attempts made to transfer huia to island sanctuaries. Unfortunately these attempts were not successful.

In 1902 the Duke of York (who became King George V) visited Rotorua and a local Maori man gave him a huia tail feather, which the Duke of York put on his hat. And since the ‘King-to-be’ had one, everyone else wanted a huia feather too! Rich and famous people around the world were willing to pay lots of money to have their own huia feather, so hunters began killing the huia again. The huia did not stand a chance of survival against this final hunt, as well as introduced predators and habitat loss. The huia became extinct.

The last reliable sighting of a live huia was in 1907. However, there have been stories about people seeing huia up to the year 1920.

The only huia seen today are stuffed ones.

What a shame the huia cannot be admired or heard singing in the forests of New Zealand today.