Kārearea NZ Falcon Swoops In To Take Bird Of The Year

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the competition run by Forest & Bird that chooses the country’s favourite bird, decided by a public vote.

The kārearea New Zealand falcon is a high-speed hunter, capable of reaching 200 km/h in a dive, but it is also at risk – especially from habitat loss and predation.

Organisers said the bird took an an early lead in the voting and ‘kept its talons firmly on the top spot’ to take the win over the second placed bird, the cheeky Kea. The competition has grown significantly in recent years and in 2025 had more than 75,000 voters.

“Bird of the Year has grown from a simple email poll in 2005 to a hotly contested cultural moment for Aotearoa,” says Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki.

This year, each of the 73 birds in the running had a volunteer campaign manager to help drum up support, from hand-drawn posters to reels and memes that threatened to take over the internet.

In 2021 US television host John Oliver famously ran a campaign for the Pīpīwharauroa (Pāteke/Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo), although the winner that year was the long-tailed bat (Peka peka-tou-roa).

“Behind the memes and mayhem is a serious message,” reminds Toki of the occasion. “This year’s top 10 manu matches the statistics exactly – 80% of them are in trouble. Two (kākāpō and karure black robin) are nationally critical, each with fewer than 300 individuals remaining.”

“Habitat destruction, climate change and introduced predators continue to push many species towards extinction – but public awareness can be powerful. People fall in love with these birds – and once they know their stories, they care, they advocate and they act.”

To mark the 20th anniversary, songwriter Troy Kingi will compose a track for the kārearea as the first instalment of Waiata Manu, a new project creating original waiata for Bird of the Year winners. Other special additions this year include ‘Bird of the Year: Twenty years of ruffled feathers’ – a new book tracing the scandals and triumphs of the contest – and the launch of the Birdle NZ game, which has quickly gained a cult following.

Top 10 birds 2025