An Avian Favor Competition that has a Deeper Mission
The annual bird competition acts as a welcome remedy to an ever more grim news cycle, honoring Australia's extraordinary and distinctive native wildlife. But, it's also a numbers game.
Taking past results as a guide, more than 300,000 votes are expected to be cast over nine days, starting at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as participants from around the world vote for their preferred 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 2023’s champion, the swift parrot.
Australia boasts approximately 850 native bird species. Nearly half are absent anywhere else on the planet. That total has been narrowed to 50 for this year’s voting, partly based on numerous reader nominations.
While you are thinking about how to vote, here are some other numbers to consider.
A increasing 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 years after European colonisation.
Most pressingly, there are 18 bird species listed as severely threatened, placing them just one step from extinction. They include some bird-of-the-year perennials: the regent honeyeater, the far eastern curlew and the swift and orange-bellied parrots. They may shortly be joined 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 considered at risk – will be at the centre of the government’s work to revise the national nature law in the coming months.
Why this matters, and what birds signify to people, has been the central theme of a wave 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 preferred bird that remains in the competition.
At the end of each day, the five birds that received the least votes will be removed from the race. The final round of voting will take place on Tuesday the 14th, when just 10 birds will remain. That voting closes at 6am on Wednesday the 15th.
The winner will be announced in a live stream 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 “joyous celebration of the birds that save us” and a “call to action for us to work harder to save them”.
It should also be plenty of fun. Time to get voting.
