Crafty kereru¯ a clear winner

Native wood pigeon the kereru¯ or ku¯ ku¯ pa is this year’s runaway winner in Forest & Bird’s annual Bird of the Year competition.

Final voting figures released yesterday show the kereru¯ received 5833 votes, far ahead of second-placed ka¯ka¯po¯ with 3772.

Third place went to the kak¯ı or black stilt with 2995 votes.

Last year’s winner, the kea, came in fifth this year with 1984 votes. The competition attracted international attention, with Stephen Fry voting for the ka¯ka¯po¯ and comedian Bill Bailey backing Team takahe¯.

The kak¯ı used dating app Tinder to try to boost its popularity, with a bird called Shelly attracting 500 matches.

The competition was also the subject of some skulduggery, with IP addresses in Australia sending in 300 votes for the shag, and 1500 for the kak¯ı. Those efforts at ‘‘fowl-play’’ were intercepted by the contest scrutineer at Dragonfly Data Science.

Forest & Bird said the kereru¯ population was classed as stable but was in danger of becoming locally extinct in some areas where there has not been sustained predator control.

‘‘The fate of many forests is linked to that of the kereru¯ , as it’s the only native bird big enough to swallow and disperse the large fruit of karaka, miro, tawa and taraire.’’

The team supporting the kereru¯ in 2018 included Green MP Chloe Swarbrick. ‘‘Their campaign focused on the bird’s size and appetite, kicking off a meme war over which native bird is the roundest,’’ Forest & Bird said.

It’s the first time the kereru¯ has won the title.