I've probably had the 1971 set of 3 birds from Niue for nearly 40 years, but in all that time, I have never questioned the identity of the triller, named "Heahea" on the stamp. Apparently the same species was issued in 1993 as the top value of a definitive series that started in 1992. As it was a high value, and a repeat of the species, I did not collect it at the time. Now, in 2011, Niue is issuing another set of 3 that also includes the "Heahea". Photographs of the Niue subspecies "whitmeei" of the Polynesian Triller (Lalage maculosa) have appeared on the web, and I have cropped one from here. The most recent issue does seem to ressemble the bird on the photograph quite closely. I suspect that the designer of the 1971 issue had never seen the species on Niue, and was probably given a description of what it was supposed to look like. It is too black and white to be the intended species, and looks more like a Pied Triller (Lalage nigra), though its tail is too long, even for Long-tailed Triller (Lalage leucopyga). Even the 1993 issue does not look much like the intended species. One reservation I have about the latest attempt at this species: the legs and feet do not look natural!

I shall amend this stamp in my next update.