Last huia sighting to make the news?

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SomesBirder
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Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby SomesBirder » Thu Aug 03, 2017 8:46 pm

When I got my 1955 edition of W. R. B. Oliver's New Zealand Birds, the previous owner left a newspaper clipping in it. The clipping is from June 24th, 1989, and is titled, "DOC to check Huia sighting, 11 years later". The said sighting was of a female huia at Tangarakau Gorge in September 1978. Would this be the last unconfirmed huia sighting to ever be published in a newspaper?

-Somes
tinowaka
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby tinowaka » Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:45 pm

I have a story I wish to relay.

Back in the mid 1980s, Easter 1984 I think, I was hunting in the Tararua's with a mate, in behind Shannon. We set off early one morning from our camp walking beside a stream through the bush, when a bird flew toward us at about a metre off the ground. It few in an odd manner - more like a bat than a bird - from side to side. It also had an unusual song - it sounded like a bosun's whistle. It landed in a dead spar slightly uphill of us. I looked through my rifle scope at it. It was a bright overcast day so the bird was in silhouette. It was difficult to make out its size but looked about the size of a tui, maybe bigger. However, what I could make out was that it was blackish and there were two yellowish wattles on its face. I had spent a lot of time in the bush in the Tararua's hunting possums since before I was 15 years old and hadn't seen or heard a bird like this before.

When I got home I looked up my NZ birds book. The only bird that could match it with was the male huia. I didn't notice any white tipped tail feathers when I was looking, but the bright background would not have helped, and I didn't have any idea of what I was looking at, at the time. I'm not sure why I didn't tell anyone in authority about the time. Partly it was due to the difficulty in working out who to tell - this was pre DoC days. I didn't have a hunting permit either which also didn't help. I was young, in my early twenties.

This evening I was watching a programme on Maori TV, Artifacts, with the episode being on the huia. They had an old recording of someone mimicking a huia. In the past I have thought about that moment and convinced myself that it probably was just a tui. But when I heard the recording on the TV it sounded like a bosun's whistle just like my bird.

Anyway that's my recollection. I always thought I'd go back and have a look, but I haven't got around to it and probably won't. The country is pretty rugged and I'm not getting any younger. I could pretty much pinpoint the spot on a map if anyone is interested.
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CMKMStephens
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby CMKMStephens » Fri Jun 29, 2018 4:13 pm

Have a listen to this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bhtrqxdcr2kmg ... D.mp3?dl=0

How does it compare?

While there is a famous and regularly played Huia imitation, a couple of years ago I helped Auckland War Memorial Museum with putting the provenance to another Huia imitation. This one is by Archibald Bogle, who at the turn of the 20th century was a surveyor in the relevant area. Like everyone else at the time, he was busy luring Huia and killing them. He later went onto other things, eg a member of the Geographic Board.

In theory, buried in Te Papa, could be his earlier recording:

Some years ago Mr W.J.Phillips was ethnologist at the Dominion Museum, his brother had been a survey cadet with Bill Stewart and this gave him the idea to ask Stewart if he had, in the course of his bush surveys, ever seen any huia. Stewart said "no", but named me as one who had seen them, sometimes daily, for a period of months, and the upshot was an urgent invitation to visit the museum and tell Phillips what I knew concerning the birds. This was carefully recorded for the archives and was followed by a request to register the distinctive whistle of the huia on a tape recorder. At such unexpected short notice, my lips, of course, went dry, and my whistle would not have excited much envy in a real huia's breast. But, ultimately, I got a good result which, I assumed, was carefully preserved at the Dominion Museum. However, Mr Phillips did not mention the recording in his "Book of the Huia", and recent enquiries failed to discover any trace of it.; Just recently, there, I again recorded the Huia's call, this time for H.R. McKenzie and the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Jim_j
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby Jim_j » Fri Jun 29, 2018 5:03 pm

Certainly not impossible - and probably more likely than most of the recent "sightings" of the SI Kokako.
In the 70's there was a significant beech mast (in the upper SI at least) and I kind of think that the resultant stoat/rat plague probably wiped out any remaining huia, kokako, bushwren etc - certainly pretty much knocked out yellowhead from most of the top haf of the SI.
But maybe a lone male huia that maybe fledged before then could have been around in the early 80's?

cheers
Jim
c0nz
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby c0nz » Sun Jul 01, 2018 8:10 pm

What an amazing memory to have
Eclayt
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby Eclayt » Sat Oct 10, 2020 8:52 pm

Hi everyone, I thought I would share this as I would love to know if what I heard could have actually been a Huia.

So last week I went for a walk up in the Whirinaki forest to do the waterfall loop track. As I love my native birds I always try and identify the ones I see or hear. Anyway my partner and I were walking along when I heard a whistle that i'd never heard before. I mentioned to him that I had never heard it and just when I went to record it, it disappeared. So we continued walking and I heard it for a second time about 2kms where I first heard it (it was definitely up in the trees and not a ground bird). This time I managed to record it's whistle but only just.

Anyway, later that week I mentioned it to my sister as I told her I was trying to track down this bird and struggled finding any bird in New Zealand that sounded the same. She then happened to mention the Huia and I listened to the recording made of the man who whistled it from memory and my recording of what I heard, sounded very similar to one of the Huia calls.

So, my question is, who can I ask to verify this bird sound? It doesn't bother me whether or not I find out if it was another native bird but would love to find out. Has been playing on my mind since it happened.

Thanks everyone. :)
Jim_j
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby Jim_j » Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:24 pm

There will be a way to attach a sound file to this thread.
I'm not technical but if you look in the Help Forum I believe it is explained.

Cheers
Jim
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:31 pm

Click on "Post reply" below this, then the "Attachments" tab, them "Add files".
Feel free to message me if you have trouble.
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huiam
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby huiam » Mon Jan 22, 2024 5:32 pm

Eclayt wrote:Hi everyone, I thought I would share this as I would love to know if what I heard could have actually been a Huia.

So last week I went for a walk up in the Whirinaki forest to do the waterfall loop track. As I love my native birds I always try and identify the ones I see or hear. Anyway my partner and I were walking along when I heard a whistle that i'd never heard before. I mentioned to him that I had never heard it and just when I went to record it, it disappeared. So we continued walking and I heard it for a second time about 2kms where I first heard it (it was definitely up in the trees and not a ground bird). This time I managed to record it's whistle but only just.

Anyway, later that week I mentioned it to my sister as I told her I was trying to track down this bird and struggled finding any bird in New Zealand that sounded the same. She then happened to mention the Huia and I listened to the recording made of the man who whistled it from memory and my recording of what I heard, sounded very similar to one of the Huia calls.

So, my question is, who can I ask to verify this bird sound? It doesn't bother me whether or not I find out if it was another native bird but would love to find out. Has been playing on my mind since it happened.

Thanks everyone. :)


Kia ora, just made an account specifically to reply to this lol. i am very interested in listening to your voice recording if you still have it. im very confident the huia birds are still out there and am keen to hear some more of your exxpirence
Monstamesh
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Re: Last huia sighting to make the news?

Postby Monstamesh » Mon Feb 26, 2024 9:30 pm

I'm getting a tad excited up in a wild spot in the Remutakas! The feathered version of gold fever sees me back here again. The reality is they are still dotted along these ranges, however given our past records regarding the safety of our fauna and flora (love my native orchids too), they will be left alone and protected by "non interaction and the odd visit to sit and listen for the calls.

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