The Avian Favor Contest that has a More Profound Mission
Bird of the Year serves as a refreshing antidote to an ever more bleak news cycle, celebrating Australia's remarkable and distinctive native wildlife. But, it's additionally a numbers game.
Using history as a guide, over 300,000 votes are expected to be lodged over nine days, beginning at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as participants from across the globe vote for their preferred Australian bird species for 2025.
The winning aviator (assuming it is a flying species – probable, but not certain) 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. Almost half are absent anywhere else on the planet. That number has been whittled down to 50 for this year’s voting, partly based on thousands of reader nominations.
While you are thinking about how to vote, here are some additional numbers to ponder.
A growing number of bird species are not in a great way. The federal government classifies 164 as endangered. According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, 11 birds have been included 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, primarily in the decades after European colonisation.
Most pressingly, there are 18 bird species listed as critically endangered, placing them just one step from lost. They include some regular contenders: the regent honeyeater, the far eastern curlew and the swift and orange-bellied parrots. They may soon be accompanied by others, such as Baudin’s black cockatoo.
It is hoped that actions needed to save them – and the approximately 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 is important, and what birds mean to people, has already been the focus 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 one vote to assign to their preferred bird that is still in the competition.
At the end of each day, the five birds that received the least votes will be eliminated from the race. The last round of voting will occur on Tuesday the 14th, when just 10 birds will be left. That voting ends at 6am on Wednesday the 15th.
The winner will be revealed in a online broadcast at midday the next day.
In the words of BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley – a key organizer behind bird of the year – the next week-and-a-bit 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 plenty of fun. Now is the time to cast your vote.
