Roly-Poly Bird facts for kids

The Roly-Poly Bird is a fun fictional character created by the famous author Roald Dahl. You can find him in several of Dahl's popular children's books. He appears in The Enormous Crocodile (published in 1978), The Twits (published in 1980), and the collection of poems called Dirty Beasts (published in 1983).

Meet the Roly-Poly Bird

The Roly-Poly Bird is a large and colorful bird from the stories of Roald Dahl. In some books, he even appears alongside Muggle-Wump the monkey. He has amazing, brightly colored tail feathers. The drawings by Quentin Blake show him with a blue body, a long neck, and a crest on his head. He looks a bit like a peacock.

This special bird sometimes builds his nest in an orange tree. His favorite food is berries. What makes him even more unique is that he can speak two languages: Zulu and English! He is also very smart, as intelligent as a monkey. The Roly-Poly Bird often helps make the stories lighter and more fun for readers.

Roly-Poly Bird's Adventures

In The Enormous Crocodile

In The Enormous Crocodile, the Roly-Poly Bird lives in his home country. The Crocodile is very proud and tells many animals that he plans to eat human children from the nearby village. However, the Roly-Poly Bird is the only one the Crocodile doesn't let warn him. Instead, the Crocodile snaps at the bird, pulling out some of his tail feathers.

After this, the Roly-Poly Bird follows the Crocodile. When the Crocodile is about to catch a little girl, the Roly-Poly Bird bravely calls out a warning. This helps the girl escape danger.

In The Twits

In The Twits, the Roly-Poly Bird plays a big role in helping the Muggle-Wump monkeys and other birds. Mr. and Mrs. Twit are very mean. They force Muggle-Wump and his family to stand on their heads for hours. The Twits also catch birds by smearing glue on tree branches in their garden. They then cook these birds into pies.

When the Roly-Poly Bird arrives, he understands the Muggle-Wumps' cries for help because he knows their language. He translates their warnings, which stops other birds from landing in the glue-covered tree. Mr. Twit tries to catch the Roly-Poly Bird by putting glue on the monkeys' cage bars. But the Roly-Poly Bird avoids getting stuck and warns the other birds about this new trap.

Later, when the Twits leave to buy guns, the Roly-Poly Bird and the Muggle-Wumps work together. They use the same glue to trick the Twits into sticking themselves upside-down to their own floor! After this, the Roly-Poly Bird carries the Muggle-Wumps safely back to their home in Africa.

In Dirty Beasts

The Roly-Poly Bird in Dirty Beasts might be a different bird from the one in The Twits and The Enormous Crocodile. In the poem "The Toad and The Snail," a giant Toad jumps into France with a small boy on his back. To escape French people who like to eat amphibians, the Toad turns into a Snail. When the French people also want to eat the snail, the creature transforms again, this time into the Roly-Poly Bird. This allows him to fly away to England. In this story, the Roly-Poly Bird once again helps to save the day.