What is special about the huia bird?
The huia is one of New Zealand’s best-known extinct birds because of its bill shape, its sheer beauty and special place in Māori culture and oral tradition. The bird was regarded by Māori as tapu (sacred), and the wearing of its skin or feathers was reserved for people of high status.
What did the huia eat?
Huia mainly consumed wood-dwelling insects and their larvae, including huhu, weta, mantis, butterfly, also spiders, taken from decaying wood, bark, lichen, moss, ferns and the ground. They also ate native forest fruits, including hinau, pigeonwood, Coprosma, and kahikatea, and “vegetable matter”.
Who wore huia feathers?
The huia feather is a revered treasure for Māori and symbolises leadership and mana. The feathers from the tail of the huia were particularly prized and were worn in the hair or around the neck by both men and women. Feathers were often stored in intricately carved boxes known as wakahuia.
What sound does a huia make?
Māori named the bird after its loud distress call, described as “a smooth whistle rendered as huia, uia, uia or where are you?” Others have described them as sounding like a mix between the tūī and the kōkako with their chuckling and flute-like calls.
What does the name huia mean?
The meaning of Huia is ‘revered and extinct. ‘ This name is especially approved for ‘Girls’ Gender. Name: Huia.
When was the last sighting of the huia?
28 December 1907
The last official confirmed huia sighting was made on 28 December 1907 when W. W. Smith saw three birds in the forests of the Tararua Ranges.
How much is a huia feather?
How much would you pay for a feather? In June 2010 a single huia tail feather sold at auction in Auckland for NZ$8,000 – making it the world’s most expensive feather ever. The previous ‘record-holder’ was the American bald eagle, with an eagle feather selling for a mere NZ$4,000 at a US auction.
Where was the last sighting of the huia bird?
Tararua Ranges
The last authenticated sighting of a huia is generally believed to have been in 1907 in the Tararua Ranges, north of Wellington. Sound recording technology was in its infancy when the huia died out, so there are no recordings of the actual bird call itself.
Why huia bird feather is expensive?
The first was rampant overhunting to procure huia skins for mounted specimens and their tail feathers for hat decorations. The second major cause was the widespread deforestation of the lowlands of the North Island by European settlers to create pasture for agriculture.
What does huia mean Māori?
Definition of huia : a bird (Neomorpha acutirostris or Heteralocha acutirostris) related to the starlings, confined to a small region in the mountains of New Zealand, and having black white-tipped tail feathers prized by Maori chiefs and worn as insignia of rank.