Keas - a cheeky thief, but our top bird
The votes are in for 2017’s secondbiggest election and the winner is clear – the kea is our bird of the year.
It is the first time the kea has won the annual Forest & Bird poll, which has run since at least 2005, though it did come second to the ko¯ kako in 2016.
The win came at a perilous time for kea – they have been classified endangered with just 3000 to 7000 of the mountain-dwelling birds remaining, Forest & Bird said.
As well as predation, they were often hit by cars, stuck in manmade objects, and got sick from human food.
Adding to their woes was lead poisoning from licking and chewing lead nails and flashings, while climate change could also be making their alpine habitats too warm.
This year’s poll attracted 50,000 votes – up from 20,000 in 2016. More than 7000 of those votes went to the kea.
The kea campaign was run by kea enthusiasts and supported by the Kea Conservation Trust.
Team Kea co-campaigner Laura Young hoped the win would make people realise how vulnerable kea were.
‘‘We often hear of them hanging out in car parks, being cheeky and stealing things, but don’t realise they are in decline,’’ Young said. ‘‘You can’t not love them.’’
While the Green Party pulled off a remarkable turnaround in New Zealand’s general election, it backed a loser in the bird of the year competition, launching a campaign backing the kereru¯ .
That announcement came as members of Team Kea were monitoring kea in Kahurangi National Park in the top of the South Island.
‘‘One day we climbed to the top of Mt Patriarch to get reception and check in on the campaign,’’ Young said.
‘‘We saw that the Green Party had made an official announcement in support of the kereru¯ , so we used what little phone battery we had left to hit back at them with a retaliation video.’’