Overview
Piopio occurred throughout the North and South Islands, plus Stewart Island (Rakiura), Stephens Island (Takapourewa) and some Fiordland islands. Sometimes referred to as native thrushes, piopio are placed in their own New Zealand-endemic family Turnagridae, and are thought to be distantly related to the bowerbirds and catbirds of Papua New Guinea and Australia. Two species are recognised: the North Island piopio (Turnagra tanagra), which had whitish underparts, and the South Island piopio (Turnagra capensis), which was streaked brown and white underneath. Piopio from Stephens Island were smaller than other South Island piopio, and were placed in a separate subspecies (Turnagra capensis minor).
Piopio were famed songsters, and were abundant in some locations until the late 1860s. Charles Douglas noted that up to a dozen of these 'clumsey stupid' birds would come around a bush camp and take food out of a man's hand 'as if he was merely a stuffed effegy of some sort, or a kind of walking tree, that grew crumbs and bits of butter (Tennyson & Martinson 2006, p.128).
It was said that piopio could mimic the calls of other birds and were ‘unquestionably the best of our native songsters’. Calls consisted of five distinct bars, each repeated six or seven times but interrupted by other notes, one of which was a ‘peculiar rattling sound, accompanied by a spreading of the tail, and apparently expressive of ecstacy’. However, the ‘ordinary note…of the Piopio, whence it derives its name, is a short, sharp, whistling cry, quickly repeated’ (Tennyson & Martinson 2006, p.128).
Te Papa holds two nests of the South Island piopio, but no eggs. The clutch was reported to be two eggs.
Piopio disappeared rapidly following the introduction and spread of ship rats and stoats in the late 1800s. Although unconfirmed sightings of the North Island piopio continued to be made through to the 1970s, the last confirmed sightings of both species were between 1902 and 1905. The Stephens Island piopio was exterminated by cats by about 1898.
The scientific names of piopio are 'incorrect' on two counts, as they indicate both incorrect relationships and the wrong geographical distribution. Turnagra is a a combination of Turdus (thrushes) and Tanagra (American tanagers), and the latter error is replicated in the species name tanagra. Anders Sparrman (who described the South Island piopio in 1787) mistakenly believed that the species came from the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), hence capensis. It is a cardinal rule of scientific nomenclature that once a name is applied validly to a new species (i.e. the new species is demonstrably different, and the name has not been used before), the name can not be changed.
Reference
Tennyson, A.J.D.; Martinson, P. 2006. Extinct birds of New Zealand. Wellington, Te Papa Press.