An Bird Popularity Competition that has a Deeper Purpose
Bird of the Year acts as a welcome antidote to an increasingly grim news cycle, honoring Australia's remarkable and unique native wildlife. But, it's also a numbers game.
Using history as a indicator, over 300,000 votes are expected to be lodged over nine days, starting at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as participants from around the world vote for their favourite Australian bird species for 2025.
The winning aviator (assuming it is a bird that flies – likely, but not guaranteed) will be honored together with prior winners: the Australian magpie, the black-throated finch, the superb fairy-wren and last year's winner, the swift parrot.
Australia boasts approximately 850 native bird species. Nearly half are absent anywhere else on the planet. That total has been whittled down to 50 for this year’s voting, based in part on thousands of reader nominations.
While you are considering how to vote, here are some additional numbers to consider.
A increasing number of bird species are not in a great way. The federal government lists 164 as threatened. 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 decades after European colonisation.
Most urgently, there are 18 bird species classified as critically endangered, placing them just one step from lost. They include some bird-of-the-year perennials: 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.
It is hoped that actions needed 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 revise the national nature law in the coming months.
Why this matters, and what birds mean to people, has already been the central theme of a series of scene-setting stories, photos, videos and artwork in recent weeks. There’s plenty more to come.
But, for now, the number to focus on is: one.
Each day, everyone has a single vote to allocate to their favourite bird that is still in the competition.
At the end of each day, the five birds that garnered the fewest votes will be removed from the race. The last round of voting will take place on Tuesday the 14th, when just 10 birds will be left. That voting closes at 6am on Wednesday the 15th.
The winner will be announced in a online broadcast at midday the next day.
In the words of BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley – a driving force behind bird of the year – the next week-and-a-bit will be a “happy celebration of the birds that save us” and a “call to action for us to work harder to save them”.
It should also be highly enjoyable. Time to get voting.
