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Home > New Zealand ecology > Wattlebirds >

Three unique wattlebirds, the kokako, saddleback and huia are part of the ancient Callaeidae family.  They are thought to have been wind blown immigrants, together with two other distinctive families of New Zealand land birds, wrens and native thrushes, during the Paleocene 60 million years ago.  These three families are not found in any other part of the world.  They developed ground feeding habits, and in some cases various degrees of flightlessness in a predator-free ecology.  Extinctions occurred after human settlement when mammals were introduced and habitat was destroyed by fire or converted to pasture.

Huia  Heteralocha acutirostris

The huia was one of the biggest losses to New Zealand's unique avifauna.  It became extinct in 1907 after it was hunted extensively for its tail feathers, which were in great demand due to an international fashion of wearing them in hats. The male and female were so sexually dimorphic with different straight and curved beak forms, they were at first thought to be separate species.
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North Island kokako  Callaeas cinerea
South Island kokako  Callaeas cinerea wilsoni

The North Island kokako is highly endangered, holding on as the only wattlebird on the New Zealand mainland.  A few small populations are intensely managed through captive breeding, translocation and predator control in 'mainland island' sanctuaries. The South Island kokako has not been seen for three decades and is assumed to be extinct.
See more Hear the song of kokako

North Island saddleback (Tieke)
Philesturnus carunculatus rufusater
South Island saddleback
Philesturnus carunculatus carunculatus

The saddleback is the strongest survivor of New Zealand's wattlebirds, mainly because it is now only on offshore islands that have been cleared of predators.  Until a century ago, both the North and South Island subspecies were common throughout podocarp forests on both mainland islands.
See more Hear the song of saddleback
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International Threatened
and Endangered Listings
2004 IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species

Huia
Heteralocha acutirostris
Extinct
North Island Kokako
Callaeas cinerea
Endangered
Saddleback
Philesturnus carunculatus
Lower risk, near threatened

United States Threatened
and Endangered Species,
Foreign Listed Species

Photo Credit
Top right: An immature saddleback, Geoff Moon
Left 2nd from top: Takahe
Left 5th from top: Tusked weta
Left 6th from top: Archey's frog
Center 2nd from top: Kokako, Crown Copyright © Department of Conservation.
Left 7th from top: Kauri, Alexander Turnbull Library
Illustration Credit
Center top: John Gerrard Keulemans 1842-1912, Huia (male and female) Heteralocha acutirostris 1888
Center bottom: John Gerrard Keulemans 1842-1912, Jack-bird Creadion cinereus, Saddleback Creadion carunculatus 1888
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand must be obtained before any re-use of these images.