Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki is here to take us through the history and future of the competition, and why we should care.
International campaigns, a Russian vote-tampering scandal, and an imposter taking the win, there’s one election that New Zealanders have taken very seriously.
No, it doesn’t involve politicians... or even human beings.
For two decades, the public has pored over more than 80 native birds, and one controversial bat, to crownone Bird of the Year.
The fun is meant to highlight our native fauna, and the fact that NZ has one of the highest rates of threatened species in the world.
Forest and Bird chief executive Nicola Toki told The Front Page they’ve had to change the voting process over the years to alleviate untoward involvement.
“We had one year when a couple of teenagers got really excited about a particular species of bird and just voted repeatedly and kept cranking up the votes at a time when we really didn’t have the controls in place to be able to do anything about it,” she said.
This year, pundits can vote for up to five birds, and each will get a point regardless of their order. Once a selection has been made, you’ll need to verify your vote to prevent voter fraud.
John Oliver appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon dressed as a pūteketeke for the New Zealand's Bird of the Century contest. Photo / via video
The competition skyrocketed in 2023, when Last Week Tonight host John Oliver decided to put his weight behind the pūteketeke. His campaign included billboards in Mumbai, Tokyo, Paris, London, Brazil, and Wisconsin.
A record more than 350,000 verified votes from 195 countries make 2023 the biggest year ever for the annual competition. The previous record was more than 56,000 votes in 2021.
The pūteketeke gained more than 290,000 votes, and its runner-up, the North Island brown kiwi, just 12,900.
Toki said the pūteketeke, up until then, was classed as a bit of an ‘underbird’.
“Birds who may not necessarily get the same kind of attention, TLC, and love that a kākāpō or some of the better-known birds might have,” she said.
Forest and Bird received more than $1 million in donations from that year’s campaign.
But the competition hasn’t only faced hacking scandals and international interference. In 2021, backlash ensued after a mammal was crowned the winner.
It was the first time the pekapeka-tou-roa/long-tailed bat had been included in the running.
“People still give me a hard time about that... We don’t have terrestrial mammals in this country except for two tiny species of bat, their bodies are about the size of my thumb. They are in as much trouble as our bird life because of introduced predators like stoats, rats, and cats,” she said.
This year marks 20 years of Bird of the Year. Voting opens today, closes 5pm Sunday, September 28, and the winner will be announced on Monday, September 29.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
