The 2015 New Zealand
Bird of the Year contest was almost tainted by vote rigging. Two admirers of
the dark-blue bird, kokako, rigged hundreds of votes so that their much-loved
bird could win the coveted Bird of the Year title (The Telegraph, November
11, 2015).
A few days before
voting closed, the bar-tailed godwit – a brown coastal bird – was in the lead.
But then, in a matter of hours, the kokako – an endangered forest bird, native
to New Zealand – took the lead. It was a surge that attracted the attention of
the contest organizers. Someone used fake email addresses to vote over 200
times for kokako, said the Bird of the Year coordinator, Kimberley Collins.
The fake votes were
identified by a competition campaign manager for the kokako. Fifteen-year-old
Oscar Thomas noted the surge and contacted officials because he wanted to
protect the integrity of the bird. He said, ‘we’re surprised someone would rig
such a light-hearted contest and taint the name of such a beautiful bird.’
The Bird of the Year
contest – now in its 11th year – is organized by Forest & Bird. Forest
& Bird were able to track the fraudulent votes to the same IP email address
and to two young bird enthusiasts. The two offenders had their votes deleted.
The winning bird was
the bar-tailed godwit. Second was the kokako, and the kaka was third.
The Bird of the Year –
the bar-tailed godwit – is ‘a stunning and prestigious bird’ for any New
Zealand bird watcher. It is a migratory bird, traveling from Alaska to New
Zealand every year, taking just nine days to fly 11,000 kilometres – the
longest migration of any bird in the world. The competition campaign manager
for the bar-tailed godwit, Keith Woodley, said, ‘When they get here, they look
absolutely exhausted. The first thing they do is have a drink to rehydrate and
then they go to sleep. Eventuallly they start feeding to make up for the huge
amount of weight they lose during the flight.’ It is estimated that
80,000-100,000 godwits arrive in New Zealand from late September. But with
numbers declining the godwit is now on the ‘near threatened’ list.
The winning bird can
be seen in New Zealand near Auckland – at the Kaipara and Manukau harbours – at
the Firth of Thames on the northern coast of the north island, at Farewell Spit
on the northern tip of the south island, and at the Avon-Heathcote estuary near
Christchurch.
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