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Huia

Heterolochas acutirostris
A bird from New Zealand with distinctive red wattles and black tail feathers with a white tip. The male and female have different shapes of beak (female is curved, the male is straight).
A european fashion for black feathers with white tips in the early part of the 20th century led to widespread hunting of the bird and its rapid extinction by about 1907.



 


A beautiful bird. No longer to be seen or heard.




The guess is that the Huia used their dimorphic beaks as tools. Short sharp beaks for boring into trees, long thin beaks for poking at the burrowing grubs.