Karearea Falcon crowned New Zealand’s bird of year

The New Zealand Karearea falcon has been crowned as the winner of the country’s annual bird of the year competition run by the conservation group Forest & Bird, taking 21% of the valid votes.

The high-speed hunter is capable of reaching 200km/h in a dive; this makes them adept at hunting in the dense New Zealand forests.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fierce competition which seeks to raise awareness of the country’s many indigenous species considered to be in danger.

Each one of the 73 birds in the running had a volunteer campaign manager who sought to win over voters with reels, memes and hand-drawn posters.

The chief executive of conservation group Forest & Bird organized the poll and said, “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.”

The election campaign included a debate where their campaign organizers made the case for why the public should vote for them.

Meanwhile, the kakapo, the world’s fattest parrot which has won Bird of year twice, had to be removed from the contest in 2022 to give other birds chances to win the competition.

The environmentalists were able to take part this year in a version of the prominent web-based word game Wordle called, of course, Bridle.

The competition has gained international recognition in recent years regardless of the contentious campaign made by comedian John Olver to get the endangered puteketeke to win.

It has been observed that more than 70 birds, whose conservation statuses varied widely, from “doing okay” to “in serious trouble” were among the competitors. The primary threats contributing to their decline include predators and habitat loss.

New Zealand is not the only country to stage a tournament to celebrate its local birdlife.

Australia is holding its own Bird of the year competition which is expected to run through October.