Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Read by Moira Wairama

The wrybill or ngatuparore is an endangered native bird that breeds on riverbeds in Canterbury and Otago. This is a story about a feisty wrybill named Ria. According to Ria's parents, the most important thing a young wrybill must learn is how to stay still and silent whenever a predator is near. But Ria is a reckless wrybill, and she doesn't want to stay hidden in the river stones.

The wrybill is the only bird in the world with a bill that is bent sideways. It uses this adaptation to reach under rounded stones in riverbeds to find aquatic insects. All wrybills have the bend in the same direction, to the right. However Ria is the exception, born with a bill which turns to the left. Her parents and her brother Rua are more conventional. Ria is also nonconformist in behaviour and refuses to use the wrybill's natural camouflage technique of freezing on the approach of a predator and blending into the rocks of the riverbed. She learns her lesson when she has a narrow escape, being picked up by a large, soft-mouthed labrador retriever.