Bird of the Year | |
---|---|
Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau | |
Term length | 1 year |
Inaugural holder | Tūī |
Formation | October 2005 |
Website |
birdoftheyear |
Bird of the Year ( Māori: Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau) is an annual election-based competition run by New Zealand conservation organisation Forest & Bird to elect a New Zealand native "Bird of the Year". The competition is intended to raise awareness of the conservation threats to many endangered native birds.
It draws support from celebrities including politicians, artists, actors, and television personalities. [1] The election is a significant social media and public event in New Zealand; there are regular attempts at voter fraud, some winners (such as the short-tailed bat) have been controversial, and in 2023 a TV campaign by comedian John Oliver drew international attention (and hundreds of thousands of overseas votes) to the contest, winning with more than 290,000 votes for the Pūteketeke, [2] from more than 195 countries.
Bird of the Year (BOTY) was first launched in October 2005 by Michael Szabo, editor of Forest & Bird at the time, initially as an online poll featured in Forest & Bird's first email newsletter; votes were collected by email and through the post. [3] Szabo noticed the public outcry when RNZ considered dropping bird calls from its daily Morning Report, and decided to tap into this public interest with an annual poll. [4] The first BOTY contest included 76 native bird species and received a total of 900 votes; the tūī was the winner. [5] BOTY was later championed by Forest & Bird's communications manager Helen Bain, who saw it as a "light-hearted…way of raising the profile of native birds and the threats to them". [6]
In 2014, the competition was temporarily retitled to Seabird of the Year and only seabirds were eligible. [7] In 2023 the competition was dubbed Bird of the Century (Te Manu Rongonui o te Rautau) to coincide with Forest & Bird's centennial celebrations, and for the first time included extinct birds: laughing owl, South Island snipe, huia, South Island kōkako, and bush wren. [8]
Currently voters use the Forest & Bird website to rank their top-five choices for Bird of the Year. The winner is determined using the instant-runoff voting method. The competion runs for two weeks in October to November each year, and around 70 species usually compete. Anyone can nominate themselves as a "campaign manager" for a bird, and organise social media publicity campaign. The competition is not restricted to New Zealand: anyone with a valid email address is able to cast a vote, which became critical to the 2023 landslide victory of the Pūteketeke. [2]
Because of the transferable voting system, the Bird of the Year is not necessarily the species receiving the most number-one votes. For example in BOTY 2022 (starting 17 October), seventy-one species were shortlisted as candidates, and the rock wren was the winner, because it received the most and highest vote rankings, despite getting fewer #1 votes than the second-place winner, the little penguin. [9]
Bird | Number of #1 votes | Position |
---|---|---|
Rock wren/Pīwauwau | 2,894 | 1st |
Little penguin/Kororā | 3,351 | 2nd |
Kea | 1,852 | 3rd |
Black robin | 1,594 | 4th |
Rockhopper penguin | 1,468 | 5th |
Fantail | 1,228 | 6th |
Stitchbird | 1,302 | 7th |
New Zealand falcon | 1,260 | 8th |
Australasian crested grebe | 1,184 | 9th |
Rifleman/Titipounamu | 1,477 | 10th |
Bird | Number of #1 votes | Position |
---|---|---|
Pūteketeke | 290,374 | 1st |
North Island Brown Kiwi | 12,904 | 2nd |
Kea | 12,060 | 3rd |
Kākāpō | 10,889 | 4th |
Pīwakawaka Fantail | 7,857 | 5th |
Rockhopper penguin | 6,763 | 6th |
Kakaruia Black robin | 6,753 | 7th |
Huia | 6,467 | 8th |
Tūī | 6,457 | 9th |
Takahē | 6,292 | 10th |
No. | Portrait | Name | Year | Votes | % of vote |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
2005
|
865
[2]
|
20
| |
2 |
![]() |
2006
|
458
|
||
3 |
![]() |
2007
|
|||
4 |
![]() |
2008
|
578
|
||
5 |
![]() |
2009
|
1,586
|
||
6 |
![]() |
2010
|
6,921
|
33
| |
7 |
![]() |
2011
|
1,480
|
||
8 |
![]() |
2012
|
1,261
|
||
9 |
![]() |
2013
|
2,473
|
19
| |
10 |
![]() |
2014
|
|||
11 |
![]() |
2015
|
1,957
[11]
|
15
| |
12 |
![]() |
2016
|
3,614
|
18
| |
13 |
![]() |
2017
|
7,311
|
18
| |
14 |
![]() |
2018
|
5,833
|
12
| |
15 |
![]() |
2019
|
12,022
|
28
| |
(4) |
![]() |
2020
|
10,773
|
20
| |
16 |
![]() |
2021
|
7,031
|
12
| |
17 |
![]() |
2022
|
2,894
|
5.6
| |
18 |
![]() |
2023
|
290,374
|
83
|
Bird of the Year | |
---|---|
Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau | |
Term length | 1 year |
Inaugural holder | Tūī |
Formation | October 2005 |
Website |
birdoftheyear |
Bird of the Year ( Māori: Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau) is an annual election-based competition run by New Zealand conservation organisation Forest & Bird to elect a New Zealand native "Bird of the Year". The competition is intended to raise awareness of the conservation threats to many endangered native birds.
It draws support from celebrities including politicians, artists, actors, and television personalities. [1] The election is a significant social media and public event in New Zealand; there are regular attempts at voter fraud, some winners (such as the short-tailed bat) have been controversial, and in 2023 a TV campaign by comedian John Oliver drew international attention (and hundreds of thousands of overseas votes) to the contest, winning with more than 290,000 votes for the Pūteketeke, [2] from more than 195 countries.
Bird of the Year (BOTY) was first launched in October 2005 by Michael Szabo, editor of Forest & Bird at the time, initially as an online poll featured in Forest & Bird's first email newsletter; votes were collected by email and through the post. [3] Szabo noticed the public outcry when RNZ considered dropping bird calls from its daily Morning Report, and decided to tap into this public interest with an annual poll. [4] The first BOTY contest included 76 native bird species and received a total of 900 votes; the tūī was the winner. [5] BOTY was later championed by Forest & Bird's communications manager Helen Bain, who saw it as a "light-hearted…way of raising the profile of native birds and the threats to them". [6]
In 2014, the competition was temporarily retitled to Seabird of the Year and only seabirds were eligible. [7] In 2023 the competition was dubbed Bird of the Century (Te Manu Rongonui o te Rautau) to coincide with Forest & Bird's centennial celebrations, and for the first time included extinct birds: laughing owl, South Island snipe, huia, South Island kōkako, and bush wren. [8]
Currently voters use the Forest & Bird website to rank their top-five choices for Bird of the Year. The winner is determined using the instant-runoff voting method. The competion runs for two weeks in October to November each year, and around 70 species usually compete. Anyone can nominate themselves as a "campaign manager" for a bird, and organise social media publicity campaign. The competition is not restricted to New Zealand: anyone with a valid email address is able to cast a vote, which became critical to the 2023 landslide victory of the Pūteketeke. [2]
Because of the transferable voting system, the Bird of the Year is not necessarily the species receiving the most number-one votes. For example in BOTY 2022 (starting 17 October), seventy-one species were shortlisted as candidates, and the rock wren was the winner, because it received the most and highest vote rankings, despite getting fewer #1 votes than the second-place winner, the little penguin. [9]
Bird | Number of #1 votes | Position |
---|---|---|
Rock wren/Pīwauwau | 2,894 | 1st |
Little penguin/Kororā | 3,351 | 2nd |
Kea | 1,852 | 3rd |
Black robin | 1,594 | 4th |
Rockhopper penguin | 1,468 | 5th |
Fantail | 1,228 | 6th |
Stitchbird | 1,302 | 7th |
New Zealand falcon | 1,260 | 8th |
Australasian crested grebe | 1,184 | 9th |
Rifleman/Titipounamu | 1,477 | 10th |
Bird | Number of #1 votes | Position |
---|---|---|
Pūteketeke | 290,374 | 1st |
North Island Brown Kiwi | 12,904 | 2nd |
Kea | 12,060 | 3rd |
Kākāpō | 10,889 | 4th |
Pīwakawaka Fantail | 7,857 | 5th |
Rockhopper penguin | 6,763 | 6th |
Kakaruia Black robin | 6,753 | 7th |
Huia | 6,467 | 8th |
Tūī | 6,457 | 9th |
Takahē | 6,292 | 10th |
No. | Portrait | Name | Year | Votes | % of vote |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
2005
|
865
[2]
|
20
| |
2 |
![]() |
2006
|
458
|
||
3 |
![]() |
2007
|
|||
4 |
![]() |
2008
|
578
|
||
5 |
![]() |
2009
|
1,586
|
||
6 |
![]() |
2010
|
6,921
|
33
| |
7 |
![]() |
2011
|
1,480
|
||
8 |
![]() |
2012
|
1,261
|
||
9 |
![]() |
2013
|
2,473
|
19
| |
10 |
![]() |
2014
|
|||
11 |
![]() |
2015
|
1,957
[11]
|
15
| |
12 |
![]() |
2016
|
3,614
|
18
| |
13 |
![]() |
2017
|
7,311
|
18
| |
14 |
![]() |
2018
|
5,833
|
12
| |
15 |
![]() |
2019
|
12,022
|
28
| |
(4) |
![]() |
2020
|
10,773
|
20
| |
16 |
![]() |
2021
|
7,031
|
12
| |
17 |
![]() |
2022
|
2,894
|
5.6
| |
18 |
![]() |
2023
|
290,374
|
83
|