Huma bird the Arabic 'Maʼa' which means water." The Huma bird is said to never come to rest, living its entire life flying invisibly high above the earth, and never alighting on the ground (in some legends it is said to have no legs). In several variations of the Huma myths, the bird is said to be phoenix-like, consuming itself in fire every few hundred years, only to rise anew from the ashes. The Huma bird is said to have both the male and female natures in one body (reminiscent of the Chinese Fenghuang), each nature having one wing and one leg.
Birds in Chinese mythology and actually real exotic birds is sometimes blurred. Sometimes, the student of the real versus the unreal becomes challenged. Various sources for information on Chinese legends and mythology about bird. This includes the "Shanhaijing" (Stassberg 2002, "passim"). Also, "Questions to Heaven" (Stassberg 2002, 11 and Yang "et al" 2005, 8-10). Birds in Chinese mythology Birds in Chinese mythology and legend are of numerous types and very important in this regard. Some of them are obviously based on real birds, other ones obviously not, and some in-between. The Crane is an example of a real type of bird with mythological enhancements.