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Saturday 17 October 2026

A small grey-and-white wader with a black breast band faces the camera among wet stones, its black bill bent to its right.
Photo: William Harland · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist

Picked by voters

Wrybill

It’s the only bird in the world with a bill that curves sideways, always to the right. It uses it to reach insect larvae under riverbed stones.

Lives in
RiversBraided rivers of New Zealand’s South Island, wintering in harbours of the northern North Island
More about the wrybillScientific name, size and Red List status
Scientific name
Anarhynchus frontalis
Size
About 20 cm long
IUCN Red List
Vulnerable

One of 49,505 species on the IUCN Red List that are threatened with extinction. See the assessment

Fact source: New Zealand Birds Online

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Scientists still discover thousands of new animal species every year, while many others are disappearing because of habitat loss and climate change. Some die out before anyone has described them.

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University of Arizona, 2025

86%

of species on Earth, and 91% in the ocean, have not been described yet.

Mora et al., 2011

73%

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