Watch: Last week, many of us wouldnt have even known there was a bird called the Pūteketeke – but its just taken out the Bird of the Century competition. Credits: Video – Newshub, – Getty s/Forest and Bird
The delayed result was finally revealed on Wednesday morning after an “unprecedented” number of votes were cast in the poll.
Forest and Bird revealed the results at 8am on Wednesday morning, saying over 350,000 verified votes from 195 countries were cast, which made it the biggest Bird of the Year competition. The previous record was 56,733 verified votes in 2021.
Following the announcement, Forest and Bird revealed the top 10 species and how many votes each received.
The pūteketeke received 290,374 votes, significantly in front of its competitors. The North Island brown kiwi came in second with 12,904 votes – 277,470 votes behind the pūteketeke. The kea came in third with 12,060 votes. Rounding out the top five was the kākāpō in fourth and the fantail in fifth.
But not all the votes were verified with Forest and Bird revealing thousands of fraudulent votes had been discarded during the vote counting process.
This included 40,000 votes cast by a single person for the tawaki piki toka/eastern rockhopper penguin. Forest and Bird said this individual appears to have been inspired by the rockhopper appearing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
“Despite Oliver’s dismissal of the hipster penguin’, this was the most popular second-choice bird among those who voted for the pūteketeke,” Forest and Bird said in a statement.
Another person from Pennsylvania in the US cast 3403 fraudulent votes, with one arriving every three seconds.
Forest and Bird also said 45 valid votes were cast by people giving the name John Oliver, all for the pūteketeke except one, which was for the New Zealand fairy tern.
Bird of the Century spokesperson Ellen Rykers has applauded the worldwide interest in the competition, telling AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green the contest is “absolutely worth it” to help grow conservation awareness.
“Its quite difficult to draw a causal relationship between a vote for Bird of the Year and more birds on the ground because conservation is really complicated, but I think it contributes in a few different ways,” she said.
“First of all, we dont care about what we dont know about. So being able to talk about these birds is really important for raising awareness.
“But also, we hear from individuals and communities who are inspired to start trapping in their communities, businesses who want to change how they do things because its beautiful biodiversity and also just demonstrating to our decision makers that, hey, New Zealand does care a lot about birds and we need the investment to protect them.”
Rykers told AM she is a “big fan” of the winning birds mating dances, adding: “I am definitely a big fan of their courtship dances, which have a range of different moves from headshaking, which of course shows off their beautiful sort of mullet I guess you could call it and also the move where they kind of bump chests, which is known as the ghostly penguin.”
Last week, American TV host John Oliver launched an “alarmingly aggressive” campaign for pūteketeke to win Bird of the Century, which involved billboards in countries across the world – and caused the Forest and Bird website to crash when he rallied thousands of people to submit their vote.
On Friday, Forest and Bird said a “massive influx” of votes had led to its email authentication team being stretched, with the planned winner announcement pushed back from Monday.
Voting closed at 5pm Sunday, November 12. Forest and Bird normally run a Bird of the Year competition, but this year it took a step up as the organisation looked to find the Bird of the Century to celebrate its 100th year. There were 75 bird species up for the title.
Not everyone had been happy at Olivers involvement in the campaign, even though it was revealed hed approached the organisers, signalling his intent to launch a campaign for the pūteketeke to emerge victorious.
Scott McNab, chief revenue officer at RealNZ, told Newshub Nation on Saturday he was not a fan of people “bringing controversy into these types of things”.
“It feels like its a little bit like the Australian Underarm [bowling] incident where theyve found a loophole in the rules and theyre looking to exploit it.”
“[Hes] a B- grade American celebrity coming out and essentially high-jacking Bird of the Century,” she said. “I dont even think he likes birds.”
Oliver used the closing moments of the latest episode of his satirical news show on Sunday (US time) to address the backlash from Aotearoa and to take pot-shots at some of New Zealands most iconic birds.
He also said the kiwi looked like Donkey Kongs hairy testicle”, before taking aim at the kererū, which he described as a “pigeon in a tanktop”.
Chief revenue officer of RealNZ Scott McNab expressed his dislike of people “bringing controversy into these types of things” in an interview with Newshub Nation on Saturday.
Although it was revealed that Oliver had approached the organizers, indicating his intention to start a campaign for the Pūteketeke to win, not everyone had been pleased with his involvement in the campaign.
American TV host John Oliver started a “alarmingly aggressive” campaign last week to get pūteketeke to win Bird of the Century. The campaign included billboards in several nations, and when he got thousands of people to vote, the Forest and Bird website crashed.
Spokesman for Bird of the Century Ellen Rykers has praised the competition’s global attention, telling AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green that it is “absolutely worth it” to raise awareness of conservation.
Due to a “massive influx” of votes, Forest and Bird announced on Friday that their email authentication team was overworked and that the winner announcement was rescheduled from Monday.
The talk show host was praised even by the incoming prime minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, for leading the Pūteketeke to victory.
The New Zealand conservation organization Forest & Bird held the contest for Bird of the Century, asking people in the country and abroad to vote for their favorite threatened species among dozens of contestants.
The species boasts a bizarre mating ritual, carries around its young on its back in the water and has been known to eat its own feathers before vomiting them back up.
“I dont think they understood quite what they were unleashing when they said, Go for it, ” said Oliver, dressed as a pūteketeke, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
“Congratulations to campaign manager @iamjohnoliver and all those who gave their support to the Pūteketeke,” Luxon said in a tweet.
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