Braided River Birds New Zealand

Braided rivers are, globally, a relatively uncommon ecological and geographical feature. They are most often present in a geologically young landscape where mountains are high and ragged and still actively growing and eroding, producing masses of shingle that gets washed out to build up alluvial plains, through which the rivers run in braided channels.
New Zealand is the world capital of braided river systems, especially on the eastern flanks of the South Island where the province of Canterbury alone contains some 60% of the total braided river area in New Zealand with mighty rivers like the Waimakariri, Rakaia, Rangitata, Hurunui and the Waitaki.
In these volatile and every changing rivers specialist birds have evolved found no-where else in the world, such as the iconic braided river bird the ngutuparore (wrybill) the only bird in the world with a bill that bends sideways, which it uses to reach under rounded river stones for insect larvae.
This album is a collection of my photos of the braided rivers and the specialist birds that nest among the stones, gambling against the whims of flood, drought, searing summer winds and heat to raise their young.