Australians have always had a fascination with native birds, and it’s no wonder why.

With over 800 known species across the country, it would be harder to find someone who doesn’t have a bird story to tell. Australian resident Charlie Gaertner can remember the vibrant lorikeets that coloured her neighbours’ yard.

“The neighbours had some sort of palm tree out the front of their house and at a certain time of year when the fruit was ripe, I would arrive home to the tree absolutely teeming with rainbow lorikeets,” she tells upstart.

“They were so loud and made the top of the tree flash rainbow colours and as a child, seeing this sight was the highlight of my day.”

And the commonality of Australia’s birdlife means that people get to interact with them daily. Australian resident Micaela Zeilstra tells upstart about a family of willie wagtails that reside on her property.

“Every single time I step outside ‘Willie’ will follow me around the yard, come close and observe whatever it is I’m currently doing,” she says.

“This year Willie has laid three eggs and being able to see the three baby birds hatch and develop is something that makes me feel privileged to be able to observe. The babies have learnt to fly this week and it fills me with nothing but pride.”

With birdlife being so beloved, it stands to reason that the opportunity for public discourse on which bird deserves the most attention would do quite well.

Enter the Australian Bird of the Year (BotY) poll.

Running biennially since 2017, BotY is hosted by The Guardian and supported by Birdlife Australia. The poll starts with a total of 50 birds, a list populated with public and poll host write-ins. Throughout the event anyone can visit the poll page, maintained by The Guardian, to vote for their favourites.

The bottom five birds are eliminated from the poll each day and when ten birds remain a final round starts, wherein vote counts are hidden for the final day. Whichever bird obtains the most votes that day is crowned Australia’s Bird of the Year.

The aim is to promote Australia’s birdlife and highlight the plight of birds that need help (such as this year’s winner, the critically endangered Swift Parrot, threatened by logging in Tasmania’s native forests), while also teaching the public about birds in an engaging manner.

The Guardian writes articles on specific species, stories of personal bird experiences, and the discourse during the poll, while posting poll updates and bird content on social media platforms. It is a poll that everyone in Australia can contribute to; even our politicians weigh in on their favourites whenever BotY rolls around.

Gabrielle Jackson, audio and visual associate editor for The Guardian, tells upstart how BotY came to be.

“New Zealand has a bird of the year poll every year and it’s hugely popular, and our readers always love reading about it,” she says.

“So one year when I was the opinion editor I put out a column. I asked staff about what their favourite birds in Australia were … We asked readers to comment and it just was enormously popular.”

“It was our data editor Nick Evershed and our national news editor Patrick Keneally; the three of us were hugely keen on this idea and so we hooked up with Birdlife Australia and worked out how to make the poll work, and we went from there.”

Public interaction can vary as much as the birds being polled. While most people keep things light-hearted, some have been known to treat their favoured species akin to a favoured footy team.

The inaugural 2017 BotY highlighted this passion as the Australian white ibis (a.k.a. the ‘bin chicken’), who previously shot to first place in the polls through #teambinchicken, was unexpectedly dethroned by Collingwood supporters all showing up to vote for the iconic Australian magpie.

“It was really neck-and-neck between the ibis and the magpie, and the ibis was winning,” Jackson says. “Right up until the last minutes when Collingwood Football Club put up a big callout. I think Eddie McGuire ended up saying ‘Come on Collingwood fans, get behind the Magpie, it can’t be beaten by the ibis’.”

The poll also has a history with attempted vote botting by over-zealous fans. In 2017, the powerful owl had votes rescinded after it was found that automated bots had been set up to inflate its vote count. Then 2019 had new bots vote for the sulphur-crested cockatoo, rainbow lorikeet, and black-throated finch (the finch would go on to win that year’s poll legitimately).

Despite these attempts to sully the result, every bird has won on its own terms, pushed on by the public’s passion.

Some even retain dedicated fanbases across years, such as the tawny frogmouth, which has taken second place every year since 2019. Or podium newcomer the gang-gang cockatoo, taking third place every year since 2021.

The Australian Bird of the Year will be held again in 2025, where the public must decide once more who shall earn the title.

Australian resident Matthew Dickson sums up the decision to upstart quite well.

“We’re blessed here in Australia to have some incredible birdlife. From the smallest little swallows, to the monstrous wedge-tailed eagle. It’s hard to make a choice down to one.”

PHOTO: Parrot by Summer Skyes 11 available HERE and used under a Creative Commons license. This image has not been modified.