A MÄori male wearing Huia tail feathers in his hair.
You might think the most expensive feather in the world would come from some rare and exotic bird verging on extinction—and you’d be half right. In fact, the most expensive feather came from a bird that has already gone extinct.
The Huia bird had black plumage on its body with white tips on its tail feathers and orange wattles on its face. The female had a length and curvature of the female’s beak, when compared to the male’s shorter and relatively straight beak, made the Huia more sexually dimorphic than any other species of bird.
The Huia bird, indigenous to New Zealand’s North Island, was a sacred bird to the native MÄori and only highly respected individuals were allowed to wear its skin or feathers. The last living Huia were seen in December of 1907, however, as 17th century European settlers deforested the birds’ winter habitats and hunted them for museums and other collectors of mounted specimens.
The white-tipped tail feather of a Huia bird was purchased at a New Zealand auction, where it was expected to fetch around NZ $400 to $500. It sold for NZ $8,400, around US $6,800, to a family who wished to remain anonymous.
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i'm a feather in the wind.
the only feather ever.