🔗 Share this article The Bird Favor Contest that has a Deeper Mission Bird of the Year functions as a welcome remedy to an increasingly bleak news cycle, honoring Australia's extraordinary and unique native wildlife. But, it's also a numbers game. Taking history as a guide, over 300,000 votes could be cast over a nine-day period, starting at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as people from across the globe vote for their favourite Australian bird species for 2025. The victorious bird (assuming it is a bird that flies – likely, but not certain) will be honored alongside previous winners: the Australian magpie, the black-throated finch, the superb fairy-wren and 2023’s champion, the swift parrot. Australia boasts approximately 850 native bird species. Almost half are not found anywhere else on the planet. That number has been whittled down to 50 for this year’s voting, based in part on numerous reader nominations. While you are thinking about how to vote, here are some other numbers to ponder. A increasing number of bird species are not in a great way. The national authorities lists 164 as endangered. According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, 11 birds have been added to the list since the last bird of the year vote two years ago. At least 22 species and subspecies have been pushed to extinction, primarily in the years after European colonisation. Most urgently, there are 18 bird species listed as critically endangered, placing them a single step from extinction. They encompass some bird-of-the-year perennials: the regent honeyeater, the far eastern curlew and the swift and orange-bellied parrots. They may shortly be joined by others, such as Baudin’s black cockatoo. Hopefully that what to do to save them – and the roughly 2,000 other species and ecological communities considered at risk – will be at the heart of the government’s work to revise the national nature law later this year. Why this is important, and what birds mean to people, has already been the central theme of a series of scene-setting stories, photos, videos and artwork over the past three weeks. There’s plenty more to come. But, for now, the number to concentrate on is: one. Each day, everyone has a single vote to assign to their preferred bird that remains in the competition. At the end of each day, the five birds that received the least votes will be eliminated from the race. The final round of voting will occur on Tuesday the 14th, when only 10 birds will be left. That voting closes at 6am on Wednesday the 15th. The winner will be announced in a online broadcast at midday the following day. In the words of BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley – a driving force behind bird of the year – the next week-and-a-bit will be a “joyous celebration of the birds that save us” and a “rallying cry for us to work harder to save them”. It should also be highly enjoyable. Time to get voting.