Callaeidae
family of birds
Callaeidae (sometimes Callaeatidae) is a family of passerine birds endemic to New Zealand. It contains three genera, with five species in the family. One species, the huia, became extinct early in the 20th century, while the South Island kokako is critically endangered and may be extinct.
Although sometimes known as wattled crows, they are not corvids and are only distantly related to crows – New Zealand wattlebirds is the informal name for this family used by the scientific community.
Biology and evolution
They are ground-dwelling songbirds, 26–38 cm in length. They inhabit dense forests, where they feed on insects. They have strong legs and featherless wattles behind the bill. Their wings are rounded and unusually weak, giving them very limited powers of flight. They are monogamous and maintain permanent territories.
These birds seem to be remnants of an early expansion of passerines to New Zealand.
The public source identifies “Callaeidae” as family of birds. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Callaeidae, family and birds.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q835712. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Callaeidae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.