Huia - Social Behaviour and Reproduction

Social Behaviour and Reproduction

A quiet, social bird, the Huia was monogamous, and pairs probably paired for life. The bird was usually found in breeding pairs, although sometimes groups of four or more were encountered. Walter Buller records that a tame pair would always keep close to each other, constantly uttering a "low affectionate twitter", even when in captivity. There are records of this same pair and a further, wild pair "hopping from branch to branch and fanning their tails, then meeting to caress each other with their bills" and uttering these noises. The male is said to have fed the female in courtship. It is thought that these behaviours may have been a sexual display. The claim that the male fed the female while she was incubating and on the nest "lacks evidence". When the male of this captive pair was accidentally killed, the female "manifesting the utmost distress pined for her mate and died 10 days afterwards". A Māori man in the 19th century recalled: "I was always told by my old people that a pair of Huia lived on most affectionate terms ... If the male died first, the female died soon after of grief". The Huia had no fear of people; females allowed themselves to be handled on the nest, and birds could easily be captured by hand.

Little is known about the Huia's reproduction, as only two eggs and four nests were ever described. The only known Huia egg to still exist is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The breeding season for mating, building nests, laying eggs and raising young is thought to have been late spring (October–November). It is thought they nested solitarily; pairs are said to have been territorial and the birds would remain on their territories for life. Huia appear to have raised just one brood per season; the number of eggs in a clutch is variously described as being 3–5,4,2–4 and 1–4. These eggs were greyish with purple and brown speckles, and measured 45 by 30 mm (1.8 by 1.5 in). Incubation was mostly by the female, though there is evidence that the male also had a small role, as rubbed-bare brooding patches that were smaller than those of females were discovered on some males in November. The incubation period is unknown. Eggshells were apparently removed from the nest by adults. The brood size was usually one or two, though there was the odd record of up to three chicks in a single nest. Nests were constructed in varying places: in dead trees, the crooks of large branches, tree hollows, on branches, or "on or near the ground", and some nests were covered with hanging vegetation or vines. The nest itself was a large saucer-shaped structure, up to 350 mm in diameter and 70 mm deep, with thick walls of dry grass, leaves and "withered stems of herbaceous plants". A central small, shallow cup of soft materials such as grass and fine twigs cushioned and insulated the eggs. After hatching, young remained in the family group and were fed by the adults for three months, by which time they appeared adult.