Kākāpō crowned winner of Bird of the Year 2020
Monday, 16 November 2020
The kākāpō has been crowned Bird of the Year in an election that had it all: a delayed start, alliances, and voter fraud.
This is the flightless parrot’s second win, also taking the title in 2008.
Throughout the two-week voting period, the Antipodean Albatross topped the leaderboard with the most number one votes.
But the kākāpō, the original “okay boomer” for the male’s deep booming call, bounded into the lead with most votes overall once the preferential voting system was applied.
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Spokesperson for Bird of the Year Laura Keown said it was the first time any bird had won the competition twice.
“Our kākāpō is the heaviest, the longest-living, the only flightless, and the only nocturnal parrot on the planet.”
The kākāpō had remained a popular bird in the competition in spite (or maybe because) of a salacious sex tape broadcast on the BBC in 2009.
“So New Zealand’s mighty moss chicken can add yet another feather to its cap,” Keown said.
“The things that make kākāpō unique also make them vulnerable to threats. They are slow breeders, they nest on the ground, and their main defence is to imitate a shrub.
“Those qualities worked great in the island of birds the kākāpō evolved in, but they don’t fool introduced predators like stoats, rats and cats.”
Kākāpō used to live throughout Aotearoa, but today they only survive on predator free islands.
“These birds were literally brought back from the brink of extinction. There were only 50 birds in the 1990s and they’ve been saved by intensive conservation efforts. Today there are 213 kākāpō.”
“In New Zealand, eighty percent of our native birds are in trouble or facing extinction, including the kākāpō.”
Bird of the Year is run by Forest & Bird to raise awareness of New Zealand’s unique native birds and the threats they face.
There were 55,583 votes cast this year, up from 43,460 in 2019, the most ever received in the competition’s history.
The tight nature of the competition led to various alliances between birds, including the Kiwi Koalition, the Beach Boi Party, and the Penguin Party.
Voter fraud was discovered when volunteer scrutineers from Dragonfly Data Science found 1500 votes cast around 3am from the same IP address, all for the smallest kiwi species, kiwi pukupuku/little spotted kiwi.
Notable mentions must go to the kākāriki karaka/orange-fronted parakeet, which ran under the banner ‘The Orange Face You Can Trust’, even producing a range of t-shirts, and the takahē, who had its own Tiktok account.
The hihi, the only bird species to mate face-to-face, won the endorsement of Adult Toy Megastore, and that of the Deputy Prime Minister, Wellington City Council, the Wellington Phoenix football team, and the Central Pulse netball team.
Top 10
Kākāpō
Toroa/Antipodean Albatross
Kakaruia/Black Robin
Kārearea/New Zealand Falcon
Kererū
Pohowera/Banded Dotterel
Kākā
Ruru/Morepork
Whio/Blue Duck
Pīwakawaka/Fantail