I do not own the audio, I just recorded the in-game sounds at Lexis Audio Editor and edited it to remove background sounds from in-game.
What is "12 Huia Birds"?
A beautiful and engaging new fully interactive picture book app for children brings to life the story of New Zealand's lost huia bird.
With animation, music and lots to discover and interact with, illustrator Stacy Eyles and creative director Julian Stokoe engage children with the story of this large orange wattled forest bird, which disappeared from our forests some time last century.
Narrated in te reo and English by George Henare, children tap and drag on the images to explore what happens with the arrival of strange creatures in the huia's habitat. The app is intended for children over six years.
There are also worksheets and suggested activities for teachers and parents to extend the learning possibilities with this app, to be found on the 12 Huia Birds website.
12 Huia Birds app is available to download for free on the iOS App Store, Google Play and Amazon.
"The huia might have vanished but their story can still live on to be understood by the current and next generations. Even now we are repeating the same actions that led to the extinction of the huia such as with Māui dolphin and New Zealand’s kauri forests."
— JULIAN STOKOE, CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF 12 HUIA BIRDS
Huia's call
Maori named the huia after its loud distress call, described as "a smooth, unslurred whistle rendered as uia, uia, uia or where are you?"
Huia vanished before their call had been recorded. The calls and sounds of the huia present in "12 Huia Birds" are a re-creation using a variety of accounts. One of the most famous is a recording made in 1954 by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporration of an elderly Maori man named Henare Hemana. Henare, who remembered the song of huia in his youth, was able to whistle the imitation of it for the recorder.
The huia had a range of melodious and flute-like calls, audible up to 400 m away. Some have been described as a soft clear whistle of long and short notes which they repeated; a high pitch whistling note when alarmed or excited; low chuckling notes that sometimes sounded like a puppy whining. Some of the songs of the huia were very much like those of the kokako, only softer.
Another transcription of a huia call in notation form were created by H. T. Carver of Wanganui in the late 1800s. This was published in W. J. Philips' text 'The Book of the Huia'. It goes on to describe the huia's calls:
"Various other accounts tell of the soft, quick twittering, sometimes described as a soft whistle, with which the pairs seemed to keep in communication under normal conditions. Dr J. F. Findlay was able to demonstrate this low whistle as used as a 'bird call', tapping his cheek at intervals. He learned it from Mr Cammock who at one time shot or caught many huias."
"Apparently the 'who-are-you' or 'hue' sound from which the bird derives its name is a part of its early morning call, accentend in times of distress. It is certain that huia calls varied greatly. Buller has left us an account of how a Maori hunter was able to bring a huia well within shooting distance with a loud clear whistle not much like oridinary calls of the bird, being louder and more shrill. The young of the first year has a low and rather plaintive cry easily distinguished from all other sounds in the forest and pleasant to the ear."
