The 2025 win puts the kārearea among a group of winners that have secured multiple titles over the past two decades. The yellow-eyed penguin/hoiho won in 2019 and 2024, and kākāpō took home the crown in 2008 and 2020.
The NZ falcon previously won in 2012.
“Bird of the Year has grown from a simple email poll in 2005 to a hotly contested cultural moment for Aotearoa,” said Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki.
Forest & Bird said this year more than 75,000 voters flocking online to back their favourite native manu (bird).
“Every one of the 73 birds in the running had a volunteer campaign manager this year, creating a flood of online noise - from hand-drawn posters to reels and memes that threatened to take over the internet,” it said.
“With everyone from the Reserve Bank to a clutch of Hobbit actors jumping in to back their favourites online, this year’s election once again showed how deeply New Zealanders connect with our manu.”
Forest & Bird said that while the competition was always full of humour and creativity, the bigger picture was conservation.
“Behind the memes and mayhem is a serious message. This year’s top 10 manu matches the statistics exactly - 80% of them are in trouble. Two [kākāpō and karure/Chatham Island black robin] are nationally critical, each with fewer than 300 individuals remaining,” said Toki.
“Habitat destruction, climate change and introduced predators continue to push many species towards extinction - but public awareness can be powerful.
“People fall in love with these birds - and once they know their stories, they care, they advocate, and they act.”
As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, songwriter Troy Kingi will also compose a track for the kārearea as the first instalment of Waiata Manu, a new project creating original waiata for Bird of the Year winners.
A new book, Bird of the Year: Twenty Years of Ruffled Feathers, will trace the scandals and triumphs of the contest.
Meanwhile, Forest & Bird said the launch of the Birdle NZ game, which had quickly gained a cult following, would continue to entertain fans worldwide on a daily basis now that the Bird of the Year campaign was over.
