🔗 Share this article The Bird Popularity Contest that has a More Profound Purpose The annual bird competition acts as a welcome remedy to an ever more grim news cycle, honoring Australia's remarkable and distinctive native wildlife. But, it's also a numbers game. Using past results as a guide, more than 300,000 votes could be cast over nine days, starting at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as participants from across the globe vote for their preferred Australian bird species for 2025. The victorious aviator (assuming it is a bird that flies – probable, but not guaranteed) will be elevated together with previous 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 not found anywhere else on the planet. That number has been whittled down to 50 for this year’s voting, based in part on thousands of reader nominations. While you are considering how to vote, here are some additional numbers to ponder. A increasing number of bird species are facing challenges. The national authorities classifies 164 as endangered. According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, 11 birds have been added 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, mostly in the decades after European colonisation. Most pressingly, there are 18 bird species classified as critically endangered, placing them a single step from lost. They include some regular contenders: the regent honeyeater, the far eastern curlew and the swift and orange-bellied parrots. They may shortly be accompanied by others, such as Baudin’s black cockatoo. Hopefully that what to do to save them – and the approximately 2,000 other species and ecological communities considered at risk – will be at the heart of the government’s work to revise the national nature law in the coming months. Why this is important, and what birds mean to people, has already been the central theme of a series of scene-setting stories, photos, videos and artwork over the past three weeks. There’s much more to come. But, for now, the number to concentrate on is: one. Each day, everyone has one vote to allocate 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 eliminated 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 following day. In the words of BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley – a key organizer behind bird of the year – the next week-and-a-bit will be a “happy celebration of the birds that save us” and a “rallying cry for us to work harder to save them”. It will also be highly enjoyable. Now is the time to cast your vote.