Kāreaa Falcon at high speed earns the price 2025

The New Zealand Falcon was crowned winner of the annual bird’s bird in the country, taking 21% of valid votes.

The high-speed hunter, which bears the name Maori le Kārearea, is capable of reaching 200 km / h in a dive, which makes them hunting in the New Zealand dense forests. They are also at risk, with only 5,000 to 8,000 of them.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the highly contested race, which aims to raise awareness among the many native species in the country considered in danger.

Each of the 73 birds in the running this year had a volunteer campaign director, who sought to win voters with memes, coils and posters drawn by hand.

“Behind the same and chaos is a serious message. The top 10 of this year corresponds exactly to the statistics – 80% of them are in difficulty,” explains Nicola Toki, managing director of the Forest & Bird Conservation Group, who organized the survey.

Ms. Toki added that two of the competitors of this year, the Kākāpō and Karure Black Robin, are “on a national scale”, each with less than 300 remaining birds.

“The destruction of the habitat, climate change and introduced predators continue to push many species towards extinction. But the public’s awareness can be powerful,” she said.

This year’s competition has experienced a record number of more than 75,000 voters.

As part of the electoral campaign, the birds were also able to participate in an electoral debate, where their campaign directors argued why the public should vote for them.

In addition to winning the annual title, the Kārearea will become the subject of a new Waiata (Maori’s song) which will be published to the public.

The following highest votes went to Kea, which obtained 12,506 votes; And Kakaruia or Black Robin, which followed closely with 11,726 votes. Black Robin almost won last year, but was beaten by a shy yellow eyes called The Hoiho.

The Kākāpō was also in the running, the most serious parrot in the world that won Bird of the Year twice and had to be withdrawn from the competition in 2022 to give other birds a chance to win.

Other birds that have done well in this year’s competition and which have never won before were Takahah, which would have been off before being brought back from the edge, and the enigmatic ruru or more Plaguk – a type of small owl.

In addition to voting for their favorite bird, nature lovers were also able to participate this year in a version of the Lot of Popular Word Games based on the web – called, of course, Birdle.

The competition has attracted international attention in recent years, following the controversial campaign of actor John Oliver for the endangered Pūteketeketeke.

This included it by dressing like the bird in its talk show and the erection of display panels in countries like New Zealand, Japan, France and the United Kingdom.

There have also been allegations in the past of electoral fraud and foreign interference, as well as the indignation of some when a bat was crowned winner in 2021.

More than 70 species of birds were competitors this year and varied in the conservation status to “do well” in “in difficulty” due to a certain number of factors, including predators and loss of habitat.

New Zealand is not the only country that organizes a competition to celebrate its local bird life. Australia is organizing its own Bird of the Year competition, which will take place until October.