Voting opens for New Zealand’s Bird of the Year 05

Voting opens for New Zealand’s Bird of the Year 2005

Forest and Bird is today inviting people to vote for their favourite New Zealand Bird of the Year in an online poll launched through the Society’s inaugural email newsletter, e-News.

“New Zealanders showed their overwhelming support for the daily bird call on National Radio this year. So we’ve decided to find out which native bird is the nation’s favourite,” said Forest and Bird Conservation Manager Kevin Hackwell.

“New Zealand was once a bird’s paradise and we have some of the most remarkable bird species in the world: kakapo, the world’s largest parrot; kea, the world’s only alpine parrot; little blue penguin, the world’s smallest penguin, wrybill, the world’s only bird with bill that curves sideways, global travellers including godwits and albatrosses, and beautiful songsters such as tui and kokako,” he said.

“Forest and Bird hopes people will take time to think about what they like most about New Zealand’s native birds and why they are special. We also hope the poll will stimulate people to learn more about native birds and enjoy making their choice as they encounter native birds in the wild,” he said.

People can send their vote by:

emailing: birdoftheyear2005@forestandbird.org.nz with the name of their favourite native bird in the subject line, or

posting a letter or on a postcard marked "Bird of the Year 2005" addressed to Forest and Bird (PO Box 631, Wellington).

Each entry needs to be accompanied by the sender’s name and address (only one entry per person). Voting will close on October 19th with the winning bird species announced shortly after in the November issue of Forest & Bird magazine.

The first ten people to vote for the bird species that goes on to win the poll will receive a free Forest and Bird T-shirt.

Forest and Bird e-News is produced by Auckland company, Inbox.

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