huia

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an extinct glossy-black New Zealand wattlebird, Heteralocha acutirostris, whose male and female had strikingly different bill shapes

   The female huia used her long curved bill to probe places the male could not reach.

Borrowed from Maori huia, the name of the bird. The name is commonly connected with its ringing distress call, rendered as uia, uia. Huia feathers were culturally prized, and collecting, habitat loss, and introduced predators contributed to the bird's extinction.

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