What is "huia"

n. A wattlebird, (taxlink Heteralocha acutirostris species noshow=1), endemic to New Zealand's North Island but extinct since the early twentieth century.

The huia (; Heteralocha acutirostris) was the largest species of New Zealand wattlebird, endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. Its extinction in the early 20th century had two primary causes. The first was rampant overhunting to procure huia skins for mounted specimens, which were in worldwide demand by museums and wealthy private collectors. Huia were also hunted to obtain their long, striking tail feathers for locally fashionable hat decorations. The second major cause of extinction was the widespread deforestation of the lowlands of the North Island by European settlers to create pasture for agriculture. Most of these forests were ancient, ecologically complex primary forests, and huia were unable to survive in regenerating secondary forests. The last confirmed sighting of a huia was on 28 December 1907 in the Tararua Ranges. Further credible sightings near Wellington were reported until 1922, and in Te Urewera National Park in the early 1960s.

The huia belonged to a family found only in New Zealand. Before the arrival of Europeans it was already a rare bird, confined to the Ruahine, Tararua, Rimutaka and Kaimanawa mountain ranges in the south east of the North Island. It was remarkable for having the most pronounced sexual dimorphism in bill shape of any bird species in the world. The female's beak was long, thin and arched downward, while the male's was short and stout, like that of a crow. Males were long, while females were larger at . The sexes were otherwise similar, with orange wattles and predominantly black plumage with a green sheen. The birds lived in forests at both montane and lowland elevations – they are thought to have moved seasonally, living at higher elevation in summer and descending to lower elevation in winter. Huia were omnivorous and ate adult insects, grubs and spiders, as well as the fruits of a small number of native plants. Males and females used their beaks to feed in different ways: the male used his bill to chisel away at rotting wood, while the female's longer, more flexible bill was able to probe deeper areas.

Even though the huia is frequently mentioned in biology and ornithology textbooks because of this striking dimorphism, not much is known about its biology; it was little studied before it was driven to extinction. The huia is one of New Zealand's best-known extinct birds because of its bill shape, its sheer beauty and special place in Māori culture and oral tradition. The bird was regarded by Māori as tapu (sacred), and the wearing of its skin or feathers was reserved for people of high status. The huia was a bird of deep metallic, bluish-black plumage with a greenish iridescence on the upper surface, especially about the head. The tail feathers were unique among endemic birds in having a broad white band across the tips.

Huia is a group of true frogs found in Southeast Asia. Many are commonly known as " torrent frogs" after their favorite habitat - small rapid-flowing mountain and hill streams -, but this name is used for many similar-looking frogs regardless of whether they are closely related. A seemingly less ambiguous name is huia frogs; however, the supposed genus seems actually to be a polyphyletic " wastebin taxon" and might contain only a fraction of the dozens of species placed here by some authors.

Several species of Amolops and Odorrana are highly convergent with Huia. O. absita for example is highly similar in habitus to the completely allopatric H. masonii. Though the latter might not be a member of Huia in the strictest sense, it is at least a very close relative.

In another incidence of convergent evolution yielding adaptation to habitat, the tadpoles of Amolops, Huia, Meristogenys as well as Rana sauteri have a raised and usually well-developed sucker on their belly. This is useful in keeping in place in rocky torrents, where these frogs grow up. But as Odorrana and Staurois from comparable habitat prove, this sucker is by no means a necessity and other means of adaptation to torrent habitat exist.

Huia is an extinct New Zealand bird species.

Huia may also refer to:

• Huia (frog), a frog genus
• Huia (plant), a genus of extinct plants
• Huia (place), an Auckland suburb
• Huia River, a river on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand
• 9488 Huia, a main-belt asteroid
• Huia Publishers, a publishing company
• "Huia", a song by Upper Hutt Posse from Legacy

Huia is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early Devonian (Pragian or Siegenian, around ). The genus was first described in 1985 based on fossil specimens from the Posongchong Formation, Wenshan district, Yunnan, China.