George Te Au, kaumatua of Kāti Māmoe, relates a story about hearing the call of the hākuwai, and its relevance to the mutton bird gathering expeditions of his people.
He says his father would go up to a pākihi, or clearing, and listen for the birds when they were on the Tītī/Muttonbird Islands. After they heard it they knew the season was coming to an end, and the boats would soon come to pick them up.
He says it had a ghostly call and gives an imitation of the sound, which he first heard when he was about twelve years old. He says he was very frightened when he first heard it.
He says his tāua [grandmother] would say it was the male bird calling for the young tītī to leave the island, which meant the end of the season. As far as he knows, no one has ever seen the hākuwai.