Bird of the Year
October 8, 2015 8:17 AM   Subscribe

Every year, Forest and Bird New Zealand holds a vote for the (New Zealand) Bird of the Year. Will you vote for the cheeky kea, the fantail, the bellbird, the little blue penguin, the famous kakapo, the melodious kokako, the NZ robin, the plucky pukeko, the tui, the curious weka or one of the other contenders?
posted by scodger (25 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
YASSSSSS the kea, the worlds most perfect "fuck you" bird.
posted by supercrayon at 8:26 AM on October 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


Always the pukeko because they're always my favourite. Even though the kea is probably far cooler in every way plus what can really beat a kiwi?

I do find yearly voting a bit silly, it's not like there are lots of new ones and the old ones don't change that much.
posted by shelleycat at 8:30 AM on October 8, 2015


This makes me so happy. Breaks through the blackened, crusty shell of my heart and nibbles on its chewy nougat centre.

Who's a little cutie? Tara Iti, that's who! Yes you are! Yes you are!
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:44 AM on October 8, 2015


"cheeky"
posted by Sys Rq at 8:56 AM on October 8, 2015


This is a great post. Thank you for making it.

I am also on Team Kea, but I think I could be convinced on the merits of a Takahē.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 8:59 AM on October 8, 2015


Can they be extinct? Because my vote is for Haast's eagle.
posted by imnotasquirrel at 9:34 AM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


New Zealand is not hurting for cool birds.
posted by y2karl at 9:58 AM on October 8, 2015


NZ has way less cool birds than it used to and many of those that are left are very very endangered. Like every single takahe and kakapo has a name because there are so few of them. There is a lot of amazing conservation going on and some species are really improving, but many others are actively in trouble or even massively declining and (e.g.) the Haast's eagle, giant penguin and all the moas aren't coming back.

So actually I think NZ is hurting for cool birds, because there should be so many more of them.
posted by shelleycat at 11:20 AM on October 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


You can really see their dinosaur ancestors in the pukekos.
posted by scalefree at 11:24 AM on October 8, 2015


Kea are surprisingly smart - breaking into people's houses, eating cars, herding sheep. And they look at you like they know something you don't. I've a nasty feeling they are studying us, not the other way around. It's quite possibly true.

One of them even runs the country. Some people are not happy about this.
posted by happyinmotion at 11:35 AM on October 8, 2015


You want New Zealand birds? I'll give you New Zealand birds!

Ulva Island
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:38 AM on October 8, 2015


New Zealand has less way cool birds than it used to and many of those that are left are very very endangered.

This is sadly true wherever members here live.
posted by y2karl at 12:28 PM on October 8, 2015


Sure, but the situation in NZ is rather extreme. Combine no endogenous land mammals except two types of bat with being one of the very last places populated by humans (and the huge sudden changes to the environment that followed), and you end up with mass extinctions and huge irreversible loss of ecosystems occurring in recent and recorded history. Given the uniqueness of the local habitats and endogenous species before this happened (because NZ split off Gondwana so long ago) there is nothing anywhere else to replace this.

That's the point of campaigns like this one from Forest and Bird. NZ wildlife - which is basically birdlife after all - is both totally cool and unique and also very vulnerable. They even say that on the Bird of the Year page. Raising public awareness about the first thing also helps make people think about the second thing. So while this is a fun yearly vote to think warm fuzzy thoughts about our birds it is also totally aimed at helping conservation efforts towards said birds, both directly by a membership drive for Forest and Bird and also indirectly by making the public feel good about the government putting money into conservation.

So just marveling at the birds isn't enough in my opinion. It also needs to be remembered how fast they can be gone and what we need to do to try and stop that. Maybe it's just me somehow, but the entanglement of these two messages was one of the consistent themes of my NZ upbringing. (that and how rugby is amazing and rugby players are gods but luckily that one didn't stick)
posted by shelleycat at 1:04 PM on October 8, 2015


We are on team weka. They're such great birds.
posted by xiw at 1:22 PM on October 8, 2015


New Zealand - land of the dinosaur descendants itching to even the score. "Bird of the Year?" Face of our doom, more like. Did we learn nothing from Hitchcock, people?
posted by Sparx at 2:24 PM on October 8, 2015


Love keas. But NZ has such a wonderful range of birds.
posted by chris88 at 3:31 PM on October 8, 2015


While the tuis around my place sound a lot like R2-D2, there are some that have quite remarkable calls. But I'd vote for them because of the bow-ties.
posted by Metro Gnome at 8:29 PM on October 8, 2015


Pls remember that voting is compulsory in New Zealand so hop to it folks. It is a preferential system so mark your preferred birds from sequentially from most preferred to least preferred.
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:10 PM on October 8, 2015


Pls remember that voting is compulsory in New Zealand so hop to it folks. It is a preferential system

Isn't that Australia? #notthe9thstateyet.

I'm pleased to see the kaka in front. Since the Zealandia bird sanctuary opened in Wellington we have kaka and tui constantly in our gardens. So great.

Obviously the Haast's eagle would win in an all-time battle, though.
posted by Pink Frost at 9:29 PM on October 8, 2015


If the Bird of the Year is meant to be the poster child for all birds threatened with extinction, then Chatham Island Black Robin is the obvious choice for your vote. In 1980, the species was down to 5 birds. And only 2 of them were breeding. Now they have about 250, which qualifies them as Critically endangered.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 2:15 AM on October 9, 2015


One thing I miss by being in the city is being visited by the native birds of my youth. At the bottom of our garden we had Tuis, Bellbirds and even a Kotare looking for eels in the stream.

Pukekos I see on the way to the mall (they live in local mangroves).

I've met a weka in the wild (real friendly, we called him 'Woody') but my favourites have always been the Piwakawaka which would buzz us like bees when we climbed their tree.

Keas are typically the birds the rourists see in the wild because they are mountain parrots that frequent skifields where they know they can find cars to eat.
posted by arzakh at 5:19 AM on October 9, 2015


Keas are typically the birds the rourists see in the wild because they are mountain parrots that frequent skifields where they know they can find cars to eat.

At the top of MacKinnon Pass I had to scare a kea away because it was dragging off the pack of one of the two hikers obliviously taking a picture. It wasn't a small pack.
posted by Mental Wimp at 10:35 AM on October 9, 2015


When I first moved to Seattle, summer nights featured the high, thin skree! of nighthawks, a sound, along with the dolorous coo coo coo of mourning doves, of my childhood.

Of course, that was when this was still a small city, more like a Boise than a San Francisco.

But they have been gone now from Puget Sound more than thirty years. They aren't much to look at but oh, they added much to the night time experience. And I miss them, along with crickets, katydids and fireflies. Night was truly more magical when I was a child in Idaho and Kansas.

Thank you, shelleycat, for the exposition. I sort of knew New Zealand had a plethora of birds, and even more before the arrival of humans. But only bats for mammals ? I am embarrassed to admit I didn't know that or that I forgot it if I ever did.

Because that is such a marvelous fact. No wonder there were so many different kinds -- birds filled every possible ecological niche except maybe elephants and bears. No wonder you are so passionate here. There is so much more to lose.
posted by y2karl at 9:55 PM on October 9, 2015


We do also have a bunch of marine mammals, dolphins and whales and seals, but yeah, short and long tailed bats. The short tailed ones crawl around the forest floor on their folded wings acting like small rodents. Meanwhile, the moas were the cows and the eagle was the lion and every other niche was once filled by birds or maybe giant insects or cool lizards.

The country was over 80% forest before humans arrived about 1000ish years ago, it's only 23% now and the rest mostly farmland, and the sad part is there are even photographs and stuffed specimens left of some of the lost species (e.g. huia, killed because people liked using the feathers on their hats).
posted by shelleycat at 12:26 AM on October 10, 2015


one of the other contenders?

All of the above?
posted by Mezentian at 8:12 AM on October 10, 2015


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