Enjoy New Zealand's native birds...... [View all]
Annual Bird of the Year election and award:
Link (with beautiful bird photos): https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/
(sample)
Kororā - Little Penguin
(snip)
New Zealands birds are wonderful. Its difficult to pick just one favourite, so this year you can vote for up to five birds. Just rank your favourite birds from one to five.
Voting opens at 9am on Monday 28 October and closes at 5pm on Sunday 10 November.
Sadly, many of New Zealand's native birds are in crisis. Two thirds of our birds are threatened with extinction. Forest & Birds Bird of the Year celebrates our unique birds and with each vote you help give them a voice.
Great Guardian article on the subject of the contest:
New Zealand's bird of the year: the most important election aside from the real one
What started as innocuous good fun has evolved into a national obsession, complete with voter fraud, skulduggery and high passions
Link:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/new-zealands-bird-of-the-year-2019-the-most-important-election-aside-from-the-real-one
(snip)
......Of course, by then the 13th year of the competition organisers knew to expect dodgy dealings in New Zealands bird of the year poll.
If a nationwide vote to name a favourite native bird sounds like innocuous good fun a creative means of celebrating unique, threatened fauna you may be underestimating bird of the year. Coordinated by the Royal Forest & Bird Society, an environmental nongovernmental organisation, it is often described as the countrys most important election second only to, you know, the actual elections. Since 2017, too, it has had the same validation as two other Kiwi creations, pavlova and Russell Crowe: Australia has tried to pass it off as its own.
Heartbreaking to see so many of their birds seriously endangered........