High -speed Kārerea Falcon prize wins 2025

New Zealand Falcon is crowned the winner of the annual Birds of the Year competition, taking 21% of the valid votes.

The high -speed hunter, who runs on behalf of Maori The Kārerea, is capable of reaching 200 km/h in diving, making them skillful to hunt in the dense New Zealand forests. They are also at risk, leaving only 5000 to 8000 of them.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the hot -contested race, which seeks to raise awareness of many local species in the country, considered danger.

Each of the 73 Running Birds this year had a volunteer manager who tried to win voters with memoirs, drums and hand-drawn posters.

“Behind the memoirs and chaos is a serious message. This year, the top 10 manu coincides with statistics exactly – 80% of them are in difficulty,” says Nicola Toki, CEO of Conservation Group Forest & Bird, which organizes the poll.

G -Ja Toki added that two of this year’s competitors, Kākāpō and Karure Black Robin, are “nationally critical”, each with less than 300 birds.

“The destruction of habitats, climate change, and predators introduced continue to push many species to disappear. But public awareness can be powerful,” she said.

This year, the competition noted a record number of over 75,000 voters.

As part of the election campaign, the birds also managed to participate in an election debate, where their campaign executives have made the case why the public should vote for them.

In addition to winning the annual title, Kārerea will become the subject of a new WaATA (Maori Language Song), which will be published on the public.

The next highest votes went to KEA, which received 12 506 votes; Both Kakaruia or Black Robin, which followed closely with 11 726 votes. Black Robin approached the victory last year but was Dhaled by a shy yellow -eyed penguin called Hoiho.

Also in running was kākāpō, the most arrogant parrot in the world which has won Bird of the Year twice And he had to be removed from the competition in 2022 to give other birds a chance to win.

Other birds that did well in this year’s race and have never earned the takahason that was once thought to have disappeared before they were returned from the edge, and the mysterious Ruru or Morepork – a kind of little owl.

In addition to voting for their favorite bird, nature lovers also managed to participate this year in a version of the popular web -based Word Game Wordle – called, of course, Birdle.

The competition has attracted international attention in recent years following A controversial comedian’s campaign John Oliver To get the endangered pūteketeke to win.

This included him to dress like the bird in his talk show and the erection of billboards in countries, including New Zealand, Japan, France and the United Kingdom.

In the past, there are allegations of fraud with voters and foreign intervention, as well as outrage by some when Prilep was crowned for the winner in 2021.

More than 70 bird species were competitors this year and ranged into the status of conservation from “doing good” to “in serious problems” due to a number of factors, including predators and habitat loss.

New Zealand is not the only country to hold a competition to celebrate its local life. Australia holds its own competition for Bird of the Year, which will continue in October.