#wrybill

The wrybill (Anarhynchus frontalis) is a small New Zealand plover notable for being the only bird species in the world with a beak that curves to one side—always to the right. Wrybills have specialized to live along stone-filled riverbanks in the South and North Islands. Insect larvae hide and grow under the stones. Rather than going through the work and noise of overturning these stones, wrybills have simply developed a beak that can probe beneath them. The Māori names for the wrybill are ngutu parore or ngutu pare, meaning “relaxed beak” or “turned beak”.