# Stitchbird
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{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Redirect|Hihi||Hihi (disambiguation)}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Stitchbird
| image = Stitchbird (Notiomystis cincta) male Tiritiri Matangi.jpg
| image_caption = Male in typical 'tail cocked' stance
| image2 = Female hihi (stitchbird) perched on a twig.jpg
| image2_caption = Female
| status = VU
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref =[{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2022 |title=''Notiomystis cincta'' |volume=2022 |article-number=e.T22704154A214276713 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-2.RLTS.T22704154A214276713.en |access-date=4 September 2025}}]
| display_parents = 3
| grandparent_authority = Driskell ''et al.'', 2007
| genus = Notiomystis
| parent_authority = [Richmond](/source/Charles_Wallace_Richmond), 1908
| species = cincta
| authority = ([Du Bus](/source/Bernard-Aime_Leonard_Du_Bus_de_Gisignies), 1839)
| range_map = Stitchbird_distribution_map.svg
| range_map_caption = {{leftlegend|#009900ff|Islands and sanctuaries where stitchbirds are present|outline=gray}}
}}
The '''stitchbird''' or '''hihi''' ('''''Notiomystis cincta''''') is a [honeyeater](/source/honeyeater)-like bird [endemic](/source/endemic_(ecology)) to the [North Island](/source/North_Island) and adjacent offshore islands of [New Zealand](/source/New_Zealand). Its evolutionary relationships have long puzzled [ornithologist](/source/ornithologist)s, but it is now classed as the only member of its own [family](/source/Family_(taxonomy)), the '''Notiomystidae'''. It is rare, being [extirpated](/source/local_extinction) everywhere except [Little Barrier Island](/source/Little_Barrier_Island), but has been reintroduced to two other island sanctuaries and four locations on the North Island mainland.[Adams (2019).] Current population estimations for mature individuals in the wild are 2,500–3,400.[{{Cite web |title=Redlist - Stitchbird |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22704154/214276713}}]
In addition to hihi, the stitchbird is also known by a number of other Māori names, including: tihi, ihi, tihe, kotihe, tiora, tiheora, tioro, kotihe-wera (male only), hihi-paka (male only), hihi-matakiore (female only), mata-kiore (female only), tihe-kiore (female only).[{{Cite web|last=Low|first=Matthew Richard|date=2004|title=The Behavioural Ecology of Forced Copulation in the New Zealand Stitchbird (Hihi)|url=https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/10179/4157/1/02_whole.pdf|website=Massey Research Online}}]
== Taxonomy and systematics ==
The stitchbird was originally described as a member of the primarily Australian and New Guinean honeyeater family [Meliphagidae](/source/Meliphagidae). It had remained classified as such until recently. Genetic analysis shows that it is not closely related to the honeyeaters and their allies and that its closest living relatives are within the endemic New Zealand [Callaeidae](/source/Callaeidae).[Barker ''et al.'' 2004][Driskell ''et al.'' 2007][Ewen ''et al.,'' 2006] In 2007 a new passerine family was erected to contain the stitchbird, the '''Notiomystidae'''.[Gregory, A. 2008]
==Description==
The stitchbird is a small [honeyeater](/source/honeyeater)-like bird. Males have a dark velvety cap and short white ear-tufts, which can be raised somewhat away from the head. A yellow band across the chest separates the black head from the rest of the body, which is grey. Females and juveniles are duller than males, lacking the black head and yellow chest band. The bill is rather thin and somewhat curved, and the tongue is long with a brush at the end for collecting [nectar](/source/nectar). Thin whiskers project out and slightly forward from the base of the bill.
Stitchbirds are very active and call frequently. Their most common call, a ''tzit tzit'' sound, is believed to be the source of their common name, as [Buller](/source/Walter_Buller) noted that it "has a fanciful resemblance to the word ''stitch''".[Buller 1888, p. 102] They also have a high-pitched whistle and an alarm call which is a nasal ''pek'' like a [bellbird](/source/New_Zealand_bellbird). Males give a piercing three-note whistle (often heard in spring) and a variety of other calls not given by the female.
==Behaviour and ecology==
Research has suggested that they face [interspecific competition](/source/interspecific_competition) from the [tūī](/source/t%C5%AB%C4%AB) and [New Zealand bellbird](/source/New_Zealand_bellbird), and will feed from lower-quality food sources when these species are present. The stitchbird rarely lands on the ground and seldom visits flowers on the large canopy trees favoured by the tūī and bellbird (this may simply be because of the competition from the more aggressive, larger birds).
Their main food is nectar, but the stitchbird's diet covers over twenty species of native flowers and thirty species of fruit and many species of introduced plants. Important natural nectar sources are [haekaro](/source/Pittosporum_umbellatum), [matata](/source/Rhabdothamnus_solandri), [pūriri](/source/p%C5%ABriri), [rātā](/source/Metrosideros_robusta) and [toropapa](/source/Alseuosmia_macrophylla). Preferred fruits include ''[Coprosma](/source/Coprosma)'' species, [five finger](/source/Neopanax_arboreus), [pate](/source/Schefflera_digitata), [tree fuchsia](/source/Fuchsia_excorticata) and [raukawa](/source/Raukaua_edgerleyi).
The stitchbird also supplements its diet with small insects.
===Breeding===
The stitchbird [nests](/source/bird_nest) in cavities high up in old trees.[Rasch, 1985] They are the only bird species that mates face to face,[Anderson, 1993] in comparison to the more conventional copulation style for birds where the male mounts the female's back.[Ewen & Armstrong 2002] Stitchbird have some of the highest levels of extra-pair paternity of any bird with up to 79% of the chicks in the nest sired by other males, possibly as a result of forced copulations.[{{cite journal |last1=Brekke |first1=Patricia |title=Evolution of extreme-mating behaviour: Patterns of extrapair paternity in a species with forced extrapair copulation |journal=Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |date=2013 |volume=67 |issue=6 |pages=963–972 |doi=10.1007/s00265-013-1522-9 |s2cid=17937763 |ref=Brekke}}]
==Status and conservation==
The stitchbird was relatively common early in the European colonisation of New Zealand, and began to decline relatively quickly afterwards, being [extinct](/source/extinct) on the mainland and many offshore islands by 1885. The last sighting on the mainland was in the [Tararua Range](/source/Tararua_Range) in the 1880s.[[http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/science-and-technical/TSRP54.pdf Hihi/Stichbird (Notiomystis cincta) recovery plan 2004–2009]] There are also translocated populations on [Tiritiri Matangi Island](/source/Tiritiri_Matangi_Island), [Kapiti Island](/source/Kapiti_Island), [Zealandia](/source/Zealandia_(wildlife_sanctuary)), [Maungatautari](/source/Maungatautari_Restoration_Project), [Bushy Park](/source/Bushy_Park_(New_Zealand)) and [Lake Rotokare](/source/Lake_Rotokare).[Castro (2016).] Reintroduction to these new sites has created genetic bottlenecks that have reduced genetic diversity in the newly founded populations and led to inbreeding.[{{cite journal |last1=Brekke |first1=Patricia |title=High genetic diversity in the remnant island population of hihi and the genetic consequences of re-introduction |journal=Molecular Ecology |date=2011 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=29–45 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04923.x |pmid=21073589 |bibcode=2011MolEc..20...29B |s2cid=25508833 |url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/27513/1/Brekke%20et%20al%202011%20Molecular%20Ecology.pdf |ref=Brekke 11}}]
The Tiritiri Matangi population is one of the most successful reintroduced populations with relatively fast population growth and now stable at around 150 individuals.[{{cite journal |last1=Thorogood |first1=Rose |title=The value of long-term ecological research: integrating knowledge for conservation of hihi on Tiritiri Matangi Island |journal=New Zealand Journal of Ecology |date=2013 |volume=37 |pages=298–306 |ref=Thorogood 2013}}] Despite this, high levels of hatching failure (around 30% of all eggs fail to hatch) occur due to inbreeding.[{{cite journal |last1=Brekke |first1=Patricia |title=Sensitive males: inbreeding depression in an endangered bird |journal=Proc. R. Soc. B |date=2010 |volume=277 |issue=1700 |pages=3677–3684 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2010.1144 |pmid=20591862 |pmc=2982255 |ref=Brekke 2010|doi-access=free }}] Only the Little Barrier Island population (Te Hauturu-o-Toi) is self-sufficient and does not require intervention for the population to survive.[KWS 2005] and in early 2019 Zealandia banded their 1000th hihi chick although the adult population is believed to remain at about 100 birds.[{{Cite web|url=https://www.visitzealandia.com/Whats-On/ArtMID/1150/ArticleID/172/1000th-hihi-hatched-at-ZEALANDIA|title=1000th hihi hatched at ZEALANDIA}}]
In autumn 2007, 59 adult birds from the Tiritiri Matangi population were released in Cascade Kauri Park, in the [Waitākere Ranges](/source/Wait%C4%81kere_Ranges) near [Auckland](/source/Auckland)[Gregory, 2007][BLI, 2007a] and by the end of the year the first chicks had fledged there.[{{Cite news|url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/355182/hihi-breed-in-taranaki-for-first-time-in-130-years|title=Hihi breed in Taranaki for first time in 130 years|last=Martin|first=Robyn|date=16 April 2018|work=Radio New Zealand|access-date=30 May 2019}}] A further 30 were released in 2018.