The Magnificent Huia (extinct)

FRONT: The Magnificent Huia (image)

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Caption on Reverse:

The Huia, last sighted in Te Urewera National Park in the early 1960s, but now lost to NZ, was one of the most magnificent and unique birds ever to grace our forests. Ancient Maori regarded the song of the Huia as the most melodious of all forest birds. This female, with her impressive long, curved beak, is a striking example of sexual dimorphism, where the male and female of a species exhibit very different characteristics of size, colour, shape and structure. Related to the Saddleback and Kokako, both surviving but struggling in NZ today, this image pays tribute to the awe inspiring experience it must have been to see this huge bird in the wild and serves as a reminder to value and protect our existing endangered endemic birds…