Who will be this year's Australia's bird of the year?
November 13, 2019 5:21 PM   Subscribe

So what's the big deal about the Australian Bird of the Year? There have already been voting irregularities, lobbying by special interests, endorsements by politicians across the spectrum and jockeying to make the cut into the final 10. But now it's almost over! A month of heavy campaigning finally comes to an end today at 5pm AEDT in The Guardian's second annual (except we skipped last year) Bird of the Year poll. Hurry to make sure your vote counts!
posted by mosessis (26 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Tawny frogmouth or GTFO
posted by emd3737 at 5:48 PM on November 13, 2019 [4 favorites]


wait is it bird BREEDS or individual birds bc if it is the latter then i hope it is an extremely irascible emu who wreaks havoc on the awards ceremony

i didn't read the article and im not gonna
posted by poffin boffin at 5:51 PM on November 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


Vote Bin Chicken 2019!
posted by notoriety public at 5:56 PM on November 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


I voted for the Wedgie. You have to respect a bird that will attack light aircraft.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 5:59 PM on November 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm fine with any result as long as Bird Harley Jarvis doesn't win. Bird harley Jarvis is the most aggressive bird I've ever seen in my life.
posted by nsillik at 6:29 PM on November 13, 2019


For non-Australians, some facts about these birds: the magpie lives more or less everywhere people do, is intelligent enough to distinguish between different individual humans (and remember them), and will, without warning, absolutely open up your scalp and leave you bleeding on the ground. Cockatoos can live to a hundred or more years old and love nothing more than deliberately destroying things. The proposed coal mine is likely to make the black throated finch extinct, because our entire political culture is infected with culture wars so numbingly stupid it makes everyone's teeth hurt. Kookaburras are really lovely but surprisingly large.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:41 PM on November 13, 2019 [5 favorites]


Little known fact: Winner of the Australian Bird of the Year goes into a three match home and away series with the New Zealand Bird of the Year. Given NZ’s current champion is an anti-social bird that communicates with a high-pitched scream - things could get physical.

And all this under the shadow of Russian voting interference in NZ. Should be a ripper of a contest - I expect some classic warbles from all points of the playing forest.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:45 PM on November 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


i hope it is an extremely irascible emu who wreaks havoc on the awards ceremony

...after the Emu swallowed the trophy whole, the organizer’s commented that it was the first time in the award’s history that the trophy had been taken internally, and it will be a shame indeed if the trophy-ectomy can’t be performed before the champion’s final in Munich.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:55 PM on November 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


emu who wreaks havoc on the awards ceremony

Vote Cassowary and we can end this whole kerfuffle once and for all.
posted by pompomtom at 7:12 PM on November 13, 2019 [4 favorites]


also isn't there a season where all the magpies just go buck fuckin wild and attack everyone who goes outside?
posted by poffin boffin at 7:45 PM on November 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yes, yes there is.

I got hit by a magpie for the first time ever last year (after living most of my life in an affected area). Had been swooped before, but without contact. No blood or anything, but it scared the shit out of me, particularly as I was crossing a main road near a large inner-suburbs train station.

For a laugh, you can check out the adornments cyclists sprout each Spring.
posted by pompomtom at 7:53 PM on November 13, 2019


They swoop like crazy when they have chicks in the nest. As soon as the kids can leave the nest they go back to their regular troogling.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 8:03 PM on November 13, 2019


Ok I voted tawny frogmouth because they are just so adorbs. But it was hard, I wanted to vote for all of them. Except the bin chicken.
posted by Athanassiel at 8:04 PM on November 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


I like to remind people who look at Australia's snakes and spiders and think we're insane for living here that Australians aren't scared of snakes and spiders because snakes and spiders don't decide, one month every year, that it's time to fucking wreck anything that approaches
posted by Merus at 8:10 PM on November 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


anyway i voted for the bird who is apparently a big slut, i support her
posted by poffin boffin at 9:28 PM on November 13, 2019


NO IT'S A MANBIRD oh betrayal
posted by poffin boffin at 9:28 PM on November 13, 2019


A Tawny Frogmouth once walked up to me and sat on my arm. I nearly died of a cute overdose. I want to vote for them but I can't find any way to actually vote. Boo.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 10:10 PM on November 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


I voted the way the First Dog told me to.
posted by lollusc at 10:36 PM on November 13, 2019


the magpie ... will, without warning, absolutely open up your scalp and leave you bleeding on the ground.

Please report all avian assaults to double-u, double-u, double-u magpie alert dot com.
The magpie hit the right side of my helmet as I rode in a Westerly direction towards the CBD.
Injured:No
Reported by: Fred F
In other news, you better vote for the black-throated finch or I'll send round the 'pies.
posted by Thella at 12:06 AM on November 14, 2019


The write-ins included a cockatoo who removed anti-bird perching spikes, video here (boingboing) I hadn't seen that, freaking hilarious. Stick it to [the] man, wooo!
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 1:16 AM on November 14, 2019


There is only one Orstrayan bird:

Spangled Drongo
posted by Pouteria at 3:37 AM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Kookaburras are really lovely but surprisingly large.

Giggle chickens”, please.
posted by acb at 6:34 AM on November 14, 2019


Phoenix.
posted by alasdair at 7:06 AM on November 14, 2019


How can it not be the sulphur crested cockatoo?
posted by Splunge at 11:23 AM on November 14, 2019


Have the Murdoch papers run editorials yet about how the black-throated finch's victory is a seditious Cultural Marxist inner-city latte-elite plot to undermine Australia's coal-based prosperity or whatever?
posted by acb at 1:07 AM on November 15, 2019


given that the Guardian ran the contest, presumably they're just going to ignore it
posted by Merus at 6:14 AM on November 16, 2019


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