Forest & Bird’s annual campaign to give a voice to New Zealand’s native birds* has grown from a small-scale promotion to a national obsession. Led by teams of volunteers who employ creative – and occasionally fraudulent – methods to drum up votes for their chosen bird, the ‘country’s most anticipated election’ is fun and engaging, but it also aims to draw attention to the serious plight of many of our most-loved birds.

As Forest & Bird’s Lissy Fehnker-Heather says: “They disperse seed, they pollinate our native trees, they recycle nutrients and because humans are interconnected with nature they’re part of our extended family. It’s really important that lots of people are fighting for nature.”

*Controversially, in 2021, the long-tailed bat / pekapeka-tou-roa was also added to the list.