Sidestep: Haast's Eagle

Haast's eagle is an extinct species of eagle that once lived in the South Island of New Zealand. It could be the Pouakai or Hakawai of Maori legend. It’s prey was the moa. This eagle's massive size may have been an evolutionary response to the size of its prey, as both could have been much smaller when they first came to the island, and would have grown larger over time due to lack of competition. The eagle became extinct around 1400, when its major food source, the moa, were hunted to extinction by Maori, when much of its dense-forest habitat was burned by them. That means that even the few Maori that arrived initially, caused two great birds to become extinct within 150 years. That is a short time but understand that moa were a delicacy. In just 500 years prior to European arrival, the forest cover had reduced from 85% down to 56%. The Haast Eagles simply starved to death due to a lack of moa..

In Māori mythology, the Pouakai or Poukai is a monstrous bird.In some of these legends pouakai kill and eat humans. The myth may refer to the real Haast's eagle: a bird of massive size and strength which had the capability to possibly kill humans. Haast's eagles did not become extinct until around one hundred years after the arrival of the Māori.

The Hakawai was one of eleven sacred birds of Raka Maomao, the god of the winds. The Hakawai lived in the heavens and only descended to the earth at night. It was considered to be a gigantic bird of prey and was described by a Maori chief as being red, black and white in colour (favorite Maori colours). It was a bird of black feathers, tinged with yellow and green and undersides of white. It had a bunch of red feathers on the top of its head. It was a large bird, as large as the moa.

Hearing the Hakawai was considered to be a bad omen, traditionally preceeding war. Ornithologists in New Zealand have wondered whether the myth related to a real bird, whether extinct or still living, with some ascribing it to a folk memory of the extinct Haast's eagle.

Although mention of the Hakawai occurred in Māori mythology throughout New Zealand, since European settlement of the main islands direct experience of the Hakawai – through hearing the sounds it made – was largely restricted to the Muttonbird Islands, several small islands in the vicinity of Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island, in the far south of New Zealand. The Muttonbird Islands have no permanent human residents but are visited seasonally. There the sound ascribed to the Hakawai was described as having two main components, the first part being vocal, a call rendered as “hakwai, hakwai, hakwai”, followed by a non-vocal roar as of an object travelling through the air at high speed. It was heard on calm, moonlit nights and appeared to come from a great height. This sound could have been caused by a flock of birds flying high above?