One beautiful bird

Post date: Nov 06, 2016 4:27:44 AM

There is no record of what the kokako thought of this honour

Runner up this year was the kea and the third place went to fantail

Unlike Donald Trump I am not being sexist. Last month the Forest & Bird Society ran their annual Bird of the Year campaign - you have to be a NZ nativ bird to qualify and then you win by having the largest popular vote. Over 20,000 people participated - so it was almost as popular as voting in the local body elections!

This year's winner is the Kokako. As I heard this a week or so ago I thought I must blog so Mark & Stacey know. They saw a kokako when we were at Mt Bruce in August - it is quite a distinctive bird. Not too many years ago it was on the brink of extinction but is now said to be recovering with breeding programmes in predator free areas.