Story: Land birds – overview

The huia, now extinct, was one of five species from an ancient New Zealand family, Callaeidae. The other two are the saddleback and kōkako. In common with these surviving relatives, the huia had a coloured wattle (skin at the base of the bill) and small wings for flying short distances, and it bounded through the forest on long, powerful legs. The last huia were sighted in the early 1900s.