The infamous New Zealand Bird of the Year contest has already arrived and voting has spread over allegations of fake ballots in true BOTY fashion. In an unprecedented victory, Kākāpō took the title as New Zealand’s Bird of the Year for the second time since voting began 15 years ago.
The excitement was high throughout the voting period when the Antipodean Albatross topped the charts, the polygamous Hihi being a small bird with unusually large genitals, the Adult Toy Megastore, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Phoenix football team approved, and the Central Pulse netball team in one.
Meanwhile, some Tomfoolery was among the very low-cost groups. The little jiggery-poker alarm was sounded by Dragonfly Data Science volunteer scribes when they noticed that more than 1,500 votes were cast via an email address, all in favor of Kiwi puku. The ballot-box stuffing effort was discounted by the event organizers as the forest and birds were discounted.
As this scandal unfolded, our victors were slowly advancing towards victory, as was the nature of the Kākāpō locomotion. In the run-up to the polls, the flying bird soared to the top of the leaderboards, and for the first time ever, the world’s fattest parrot won the forest and bird’s annual Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau/Bird of the Year competitions. The stocky, algae-green, nocturnal parrot topped the first leaderboard in 2008.
The cuckoo, which is only found in New Zealand, is a critically endangered bird that was once widespread throughout New Zealand. Today, they are only found on hunter-free islands protected by conservation authorities in an attempt to recover their population with Aotearoa.
These unusual birds, locally known as “algae chickens”, were working with Stephen Frey on the wildlife documentary Last Chance after an impossible joint collision between a man and the head of zoologist Mark Carwardine. There were only 50 Kākāpōs left in the wild in the 90s, but due to conservationist sacrifices, their number is now estimated at 213, spelling the expected future of our two-time winner.
