The Avian Popularity Competition that has a More Profound Purpose
Bird of the Year acts as a refreshing antidote to an ever more grim news cycle, honoring Australia's extraordinary and distinctive native wildlife. However, it's additionally a contest of statistics.
Using past results as a indicator, more than 300,000 votes are expected to be cast over nine days, beginning at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as people from around the world select their preferred Australian bird species for 2025.
The victorious bird (assuming it is a flying species – likely, but not certain) will be elevated together with previous 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, partly based on numerous reader nominations.
While you are considering how to vote, here are some additional numbers to consider.
A growing number of bird species are not in a great way. The national authorities classifies 164 as threatened. 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 urgently, there are 18 bird species classified as critically endangered, placing them just one step from lost. 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 considered at risk – will be at the heart of the government’s work to overhaul the national nature law later this year.
Why this is important, and what birds signify to people, has already been the central theme of a series of introductory stories, photos, videos and artwork in recent weeks. There’s much more to come.
But, for now, the number to concentrate on is: one.
Each day, everyone has a single vote to assign to their preferred bird that remains in the competition.
At the end of each day, the five birds that garnered the least votes will be removed from the race. The last round of voting will occur on Tuesday the 14th, when only 10 birds will be left. That voting closes at 6am on Wednesday the 15th.
The winner will be announced in a live stream at midday the following day.
In the words of BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley – a driving force behind bird of the year – the coming days 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 will also be highly enjoyable. Time to get voting.
