While no feathers have been found from moa chicks, it is likely that they were speckled or striped to camouflage them from Haast's Eagles.

[7] The birds had long, strong necks and broad sharp beaks that would have allowed them to eat vegetation from subalpine herbs through to tree branches.

[7] The cladogram below follows a 2009 analysis by Bunce and colleagues:[8] Megalapteryx didinus D. robustus D. novaezealandiae P. australis P. elephantopus P. geranoides Anomalopteryx didiformis Emeus crassus Euryapteryx curtus It has been long suspected that several species of moa constituted males and females, respectively.

Dinornis seems to have had the most pronounced sexual dimorphism of all moa, with females being up to twice as tall and three times as heavy as males.

Eggs may have been laid in communal nests in sand dunes, or by individual birds in sheltered environments such as hollow trees or by rocks.

[7] Given the size of the eggs, and the incubation period, as soon as giant moa chicks hatched they would have been able to see, run and feed themselves.

[citation needed] Prior to the arrival of humans, the giant moa had an ecologically stable population in New Zealand for at least 40,000 years.