Takahē
Videos
The South Island takahē is a flightless swamphen indigenous to New Zealand and the largest living member of the rail family. It is often known by the abbreviated name takahē, which it shares with the
Male takahe walking on grass
Notornis hochstetteri, from Meyer's 1883 description
The colour of both female and male adults is mainly purple-blue with a greenish back and inner wings.
Two juveniles and two adults (with red beaks) at Orokonui Ecosanctuary
Moa
Videos
Moa are an extinct group of flightless birds formerly endemic to New Zealand. During the Late Pleistocene-Holocene, there were nine species, in six genera. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus a
Takahē
…southern bird") for them, naming the new species Notornis mantelli. The bird was presumed by Western science to be another extinct species like the moa. Two years later, a group of sealers in Tamatea / Dusky Sound, Fiordland, encountered a large bird which they chased with their dogs. "It ran with great…
Dinornis maximus, Natural History Museum
Neck tissue of Emeus crassus
Holotype head and neck of Megalapteryx
Soft tissue attached of several moa