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Echoes of the Past
Topic Started: May 19 2016, 03:01 PM (170 Views)
Kahu
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The iconic huia was the largest of the five New Zealand wattlebird species. It was a striking large songbird, mainly black with long white-tipped tail feathers. Female and male huia had dramatically different bill sizes and shapes; this was the most extreme sexual bill dimorphism of any bird species. A fleshy orange wattle hung at the base of each side of the bill, and was often held pressed under the chin. Maori named the bird after its loud distress call, described as "a smooth, unslurred whistle rendered as uia, uia, uia or where are you?" The last accepted sighting was in 1907, but it is likely that a few huia persisted into the 1920s.

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Female has the long curved beak

New Zealand wattlebirds are crow- or starling-like songbirds. Genetic comparisons suggests that they shared a common ancestor with the satinbirds, berrypeckers and longbills of New Guinea. Together they form the New Zealand endemic bird family Callaeidae, comprising North and South Island species of kokako and saddleback (tieke), and the now extinct huia. All have (or had) rounded wings, limited powers of sustained flight, and use bounds, hops and jumps to move around forests.

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Trotsky
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Big City Boy
Quote:
 
Female and male huia had dramatically different bill sizes and shapes; this was the most extreme sexual bill dimorphism of any bird species.


I don't see the dramatic difference. It cannot hold a candle to the sex difference in the mallard duck, for example or even the common English sparrow or most dramatic, the peacock-peahen.
Edited by Trotsky, May 20 2016, 05:48 AM.
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