Country’s treasured avian species puff up their plumage as nation votes on who rules the roost

Kea or Kākāriki? Bird of the Year contest gets New Zealand in a flap

First there was the “Jacinda effect” and a government to cobble together. Then came the mania for the jade Kākāriki, the shining cuckoo and the stern Ruru.

New Zealand’s Bird of the Year Competition has kicked off, and it has galvanised voters with the same intensity as the recent election. Now in its 13th year, the poll pits the country’s rare and endangered birds against one another: the cheeky Kea versus the shy Kiwi, the dowdy Bar Tailed Godwit against the alluring Hihi.

New Zealand Bird of the Year leaderboard: check the pecking order Read more

There are 168 bird species in New Zealand and none of them have ever won twice. Around a third are threatened with extinction and dozens more are on the endangered list. Some species have dwindled into a few hundred individuals tucked away in isolated pockets of the country.

“New Zealanders get really into it,” said Forest and Bird’s Kimberley Collins, minutes before she hiked into the Hooker Valley on a twitching trek.

“There are huge social media campaigns, dozens of memes and videos – we’ve even had a smear campaign this year, with the Black-billed Gull unofficially being campaigned for by a radio station, who have been publically sledging other birds. They called the Kererū an ‘overweight tree rat’ and the White Faced Heron ‘racist’.

With three days before polling closes, a record 50,000 votes have been cast (20,000 more than last year) although more than 100 had to be discounted when it was discovered they were rigged by a bird enthusiast from Christchurch.

Chlöe Swarbrick (@_chloeswarbrick) In the midst of a tense political situation, we have a crucial message about the most important election of the year. #nzpol pic.twitter.com/VETkqPvHaz

Golriz Ghahraman (@golrizghahraman) This man's commitment to the mighty Ruru is everything! The least the rest of us can do is VOTE RURU @birdoftheyear @Forest_and_Bird 💚💚 pic.twitter.com/EQ01w1LeOV

“Someone cast 112 fraudulent votes for the White-faced Heron,” said Collins. “I was alerted to this by a data scientist who happens to track the votes with a computer programme. He noticed a big spike for the heron at midnight on the first day of voting. We have increased our security and blocked all those votes. We currently don’t have any leads or any suspects.”

Polls opened on 9 October and for the first week #birdoftheyear was trending in the top 10 spots on New Zealand Twitter, as well as featuring in nightly news bulletins and radio broadcasts countrywide.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Kōkako – 2016 Winner of New Zealand Bird of the Year. Photograph: Tara Swan/Forest and Bird

In a week when the future of New Zealand was being decided the avian competition provided a welcome relief for New Zealanders, some of whom have got tattoos of their favourite bird, with politicians and celebrities devoting precious hours to championing their favourites.

Former All Black captain and director of Christchurch Helicopters Richie McCaw has thrown his support behind the Kākāriki, going so far as to paint one of the squad’s helicopters with the critically endangered bird. Only about 300 are left in the wild.

The Department of Conservation’s threatened species ambassador Nicola Toki is not voting, as she says it wouldn’t be fair because all the contenders are “her babies”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw with his Kākāriki-themed Christchurch helicopter. Photograph: Christchurch Helicopters

Toki says the ones that do best in the competition tend to be “the pandas of the bird world”, such as the Takahē and Kākāpō which are large with vibrant colours and charismatic personalities. “We don’t really have megafauna in New Zealand, we don’t have lions or tigers or bears, so the next best thing we’ve got is the Kākāpō and Kiwi and Kea; the poster- children of bird conservation in New Zealand.”

Loss of habitat, introduced predators such as rats, stoats and possums and the increasing effects of climate change have had a “devastating” impact on New Zealand’s birds, which evolved in isolation without ground-based predators for millions of year. Some, like the Kiwi and Weka, can’t fly, and have no natural defences besides running away, rather slowly.

The competition is intentionally fun and lighthearted – an antidote, says Toki, to recent global events and the general election.

“I personally think New Zealanders are so attuned to this stuff,” says Toki.

“A few years ago National Radio tried to get rid of the bird call at 9am and there was national outrage that such a thing could happen and they had to back down.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The New Zealand Falcon, or Karearea, snatched the title in 2012. Photograph: Craig McKenzie/Forest and Bird

“New Zealand’s connection to the bush has been described as ethereal and almost soulful. I think what that says is nature is our church, it is our connection to our spirit.”



Voting closes at 5pm on Monday with the results to be announced on Tuesday morning on radio national, just before the daily bird-call at 9am.

At time of writing the endangered Kea was the front-runner with more than 6,000 votes, while the Kererū – a native New Zealand wood pigeon – was coming second with around 3,000.

Tamsin Orr-Walker, the co-founder of the Kea Conservation Trust is excited it may finally be the mischievous Kea’s year to claim the top title. David Attenborough fell in love with the world’s only alpine parrot on a trip to New Zealand, and it is listed as critically endangered, with between 3,000-5,000 individuals left in the wild.

Orr-Walker said it was “wonderful” the Kea was leading the competition but the fact there were more votes for the bird than actual birds left in the wild was a strange and somewhat sad fact. “A lot of people are saying the Kea should be our national bird because they so much epitomise what it is to be a New Zealander: adventurous and up for a challenge and maybe a bit misunderstood,” says Orr-Walker.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kea the world’s only mountain parrot in flight. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

“They’re the mountaineer’s bird and they’ve had a really dark past. For 100 years they were reviled and 150,000 were shot.

“New Zealand is a land of birds and we love them. When we go into the bush we expect they’ll always be there. But that won’t be the case unless we fight for them.”