An Avian Favor Competition that has a Deeper Purpose
Bird of the Year serves as a refreshing remedy to an increasingly bleak news cycle, honoring Australia's extraordinary and unique native wildlife. But, it's also a numbers game.
Taking past results as a guide, over 300,000 votes could be lodged over a nine-day period, beginning at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as participants from around the world vote for their favourite Australian bird species for 2025.
The victorious bird (assuming it is a bird that flies – probable, but not certain) will be elevated alongside previous winners: the Australian magpie, the black-throated finch, the superb fairy-wren and 2023’s champion, the swift parrot.
Australia boasts approximately 850 native bird species. Nearly half are not found anywhere else on the planet. That total has been whittled down to 50 for this year’s voting, based in part on numerous reader nominations.
While you are considering how to vote, here are some additional numbers to ponder.
A growing number of bird species are facing challenges. The federal government classifies 164 as endangered. According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, 11 birds have been added to the list since the last bird of the year vote two years ago.
At least 22 species and subspecies have been pushed to extinction, mostly in the years after European colonisation.
Most urgently, there are 18 bird species classified as critically endangered, placing them a single step from extinction. They encompass some regular contenders: the regent honeyeater, the far eastern curlew and the swift and orange-bellied parrots. They may soon be joined by others, such as Baudin’s black cockatoo.
Hopefully that what to do to save them – and the roughly 2,000 other species and ecological communities deemed at risk – will be at the heart of the government’s work to overhaul the national nature law in the coming months.
Why this matters, and what birds mean to people, has already been the focus of a wave of introductory stories, photos, videos and artwork over the past three weeks. There’s plenty more to come.
But, for now, the number to focus on is: one.
Each day, everyone has one vote to assign to their preferred bird that is still in the competition.
At the end of each day, the five birds that garnered the fewest votes will be eliminated from the race. The last round of voting will take place on Tuesday the 14th, when just 10 birds will be left. That voting ends at 6am on Wednesday the 15th.
The winner will be announced in a live stream at midday the next day.
In the words of BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley – a key organizer behind bird of the year – the coming days will be a “happy celebration of the birds that save us” and a “rallying cry for us to work harder to save them”.
It will also be highly enjoyable. Time to get voting.
