Key events
Top 10 spotlight: Laughing Kookaburra
Is there any more internationally famous Australian sound than the infectious laughter of the kookaburra? While we may smile when a group of our largest kingfishers start calling, it isn’t actually for comic effect but to let other kookaburras know they had better back off – this turf’s occupied.
Jill Woodlands, Whyalla, explains why she nominated the kookaburra:
Iconic, nostalgic, their laugh takes me right back to being a kid again, full of wonder. It’s a bird that stops me in my tracks.
If you want to watch the livestream on YouTube, you can find it here, and if you prefer Instagram, head over here.
We’ve also got a TikTok stream and a Facebook live. Or just hang out with me here!
Top 10 spotlight: the little penguin
The little penguin might be the smallest of the world’s penguins but this doesn’t mean it isn’t bursting with an oversized personality. While the famous colony at Phillip Island’s Penguin Parade are doing well, especially since all foxes were eradicated from the island, other colonies, particularly in WA, are in serious danger of disappearing due to coastal development, tourism pressures and rising water temperatures.
Claudio from Melbourne was a nominator of the little penguin and said:
It’s so cute! Like many people, I have fond childhood memories of going to the St Kilda pier at sunset to see the penguins hop out of the water and waddle around on the rocks. I feel so lucky that we share our city and bay with them.
The livestream is live! Readers, refresh your browsers. You should see the video at the top of the page, where you can watch and read along with the results.
Another reader, Carole, has got in touch to explain why she voted for the bush stone-curlew – though she admits she is afraid the tawny frogmouth may take the crown.
She says:
I’m on one of the Southern Moreton Bay islands and they are flourishing here – if they are not our official emblem, they should be. I defy anyone to name a bird that has more personality, spunk or quirkiness or one that brings as much joy to so many people.
Journey to the top ten – the tussle for the top of the pile
Nick Evershed
The Tawny frogmouth was comfortably on top for most rounds of the poll this year, though Baudin’s black cockatoo came close in rounds six and seven. Hit the top ten button to highlight the most popular birds:
However, fans of the branch-like frogmouth shouldn’t celebrate just yet. If you take a look at the voting in 2023 using the menu on the chart, you can see that the Tawny was in a similarly strong position in the previous poll, but lost the top spot when vote counts went dark in the final round.
It wouldn’t be unusual for a bird like Baudin’s black cockatoo to take out the competition. The cockatoo is critically endangered, and its remaining habitat is under threat from the expansion of bauxite mining in Western Australia. Voters have previously used the platform of the bird of the year poll to highlight endangered birds, such as the Swift parrot, and the Black-throated finch.
There aren’t too many other surprises in the top ten, except perhaps the strong performance of the Southern emu-wren. The Emu-wren was absolutely not on my radar at all as it is a new entry into the poll this year. It is likely also benefiting from a strong environmentalist vote, as conservation advocates say it is facing an unprecedented threat from a planned rocket launch facility at Whalers Way, a conservation sanctuary about 32km from Port Lincoln in South Australia.
Top 10 spotlight: southern emu-wren
Not some bizarre hybrid but a tiny bird weighing about six grams, with a long tail that looks like an emu feather. Extremely poor flyers, the Kangaroo Island sub-species suffered the worst impacts of any Australian bird in the black summer bushfires. Another threatened population on the Eyre Peninsula faces the threat of rockets fired from a launchpad proposed for one of their most important remaining sites.
Therese Pedler, the chairperson of the Eyre Peninsula Environmental Protection Alliance in South Australia, told Guardian Australia:
They’re about the size of a matchbox with a tail about the size of a pencil … They’re the most striking, gorgeous little bird.
Pedler and other community conservation advocates are trying to raise the profile of the little wren. Southern emu-wrens are widely distributed along the Australian coastline but three sub-species in South Australia – the Eyre Peninsula, Mount Lofty Ranges and Kangaroo Island populations – have declined to a point that they are listed as endangered under Australia’s environment laws.
Pedler said:
These little birds are so tiny and so vulnerable – they’ve got no chance against a rocket. It’s just ludicrous.
Heads up: the livestream ceremony is just a few minutes away from launch! You’ll be able to watch it here on the Guardian blog, as well as on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Links to come very shortly …
Top 10 spotlight: the bush stone-curlew
With their haunting night-time wails, bulging, googly eyes and bodies propped up on ridiculously long legs, these nocturnal, ground-dwelling birds look like something out of a Halloween parade. Hammered by foxes and cats in the south, they are still thriving in the north and can even be found in Brisbane’s city centre.
Reader Jack from Brisbane nominated the bush stone-curlew, describing it as:
Dopey, anxious and adorable. They never seem to be in a sensible location, or quite sure of how they got there. And they scream like banshees.
On Tuesday, the New South Wales environment minister, Penny Sharpe, made a last-minute appeal for votes for the bush stone-curlew – in state parliament no less. The bush stone-curlew is endangered in NSW.
Sharpe urged people to “vote early and vote often” in what she called “the only ballot that counts this year”. When a colleague yelled their support for the powerful owl, Sharpe corrected them: “The powerful owl is out. It’s been eliminated.”
Sharpe also encourages people to take part in this year’s Aussie Bird Count, run by BirdLife Australia, and which starts next week. It’s Australia’s biggest citizen science project.
I highly recommend watching this clip if you haven’t already seen it:
All hail the fallen magpie, by the way. Did their namesake football team’s excruciating loss in this year’s AFL grand final have anything to do with their cruel expulsion from the top 10 for the first time ever in this year’s poll? Or would a win have created even more of a backlash? We may never know.
Reader Nicholas Jones, of the ACT, was a nominator of the warbling wonder. He explained why he loves them:
They’re beautiful, and have the most beautiful song. Also, they just condense all their irritating behaviour into one month and spend the rest of the year just being great.
Writer Patrick Lenton also detailed his fondness for ole swoopy:
Don’t really get birdwatching? Don’t know what the fuss is all about? Well, I’m surprised but delighted to find you here on this bird blog, and allow me to direct you to Birdlife Australia’s Sean Dooley and comedian Geraldine Hickey, who helped Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley get her self-confessed ADHDer brain around the concept of a past-time that’s often perceived to be about spending a long time sitting still.
Journey to the top 10 – the biggest crashes
Nick Evershed
The flipside of the biggest climbers – we also have those birds who flew too close to the sun and plummeted to earth.
These are the birds that started strong but finished low. Hit the crash outs button to highlight them.
The rainbow lorikeet, a ubiquitous and loveable rascal, started out at 10th in the first round but slipped down the ranks over time to finish in 24th place. I don’t have any particular insight into what might be behind the decline, only that perhaps the campaigns for other birds drew in more of the vote as eliminations tightened the overall list.
Also on the crash out list we have the Australian pelican, owner of the longest beak and second-longest wings in our flock of 50. Guardian Australia’s pelican correspondent, Matilda Boseley, has speculated that this decline was in part due to her lapse in campaigning for the pelican over the weekend but it’s hard to say if this is the case from the data.
And finally we have the Australian magpie. The magpie won the inaugural bird of the year poll in 2017, so it’s not surprising to see its popularity wane as people switch their vote to give other birds a shot at the big time. The poll does also coincide with swooping season in Australia – but then so have previous polls, so this is unlikely to be a factor.
Top 10 spotlight: the Baudin’s black cockatoo
Of all the black cockatoos across the country, none is more threatened than Western Australia’s Baudin’s (pronounced “bowdans”). Baudin’s is distinguished from the more familiar Carnaby’s black cockatoo by its longer bill, which it uses to extract seeds from marri and jarrah trees. Declining at an alarming rate due to the continuing loss of forests, researchers from BirdLife Australia and elsewhere recommended that the species be uplisted to critically endangered, which the Western Australian government has refused to do.
Reader db.sweeney, from Fremantle, nominated the Baudin’s black cockatoo and said:
They f*ckin’ rock. Very sociable, they love to hang out in our backyard and have loud yarns. Beautiful in an understated way … and critically endangered, they need all the press they can get.
They do: the destruction of WA’s northern jarrah forests for bauxite mining will push the Baudin’s “to and beyond the brink of extinction” if governments allowed it to continue, conservationists have warned. Environment and climate correspondent Lisa Cox had the story here:
I’ve just received an email from Mrs Harris, Miss Catherine, Mrs Walsh, Mr Beard and Miss Brown and the whole Kelly’s kids crew at Kelly’s Plains public school in Armidale, NSW.
They have been committed tawny frogmouth campaigners this year. They tell me:
We are on the edge of our seats waiting for the results. Of course, we are team Tawny Frogmouths all the way!!!!!! Yesterday we welcomed our new baby Tawny in our playground trees. Her mum and dad visit every year to build their nest and have new babies. We think it is a sign that this year is the Tawnies year. We are so busting to know and wish the results were at 11.30am.
Here’s some of their Facebook campaign for Team Tawny:
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Journey to the top 10 – the biggest climbs
Nick Evershed
While we count down to the final reveal, I’m making the data explorer I’ve been using behind the scenes to track the vote available to everyone:
In this chart you can see every bird’s progress in the vote, measured by rank in each round, vote total in each round, and cumulative votes throughout the poll. You can also switch the chart to show the results of the 2023 poll to compare the data between the two competitions.
For the 2025 poll, it only shows rounds one to eight, and doesn’t include the final round as we don’t want to spoil the big announcement.
Before we get into the top 10 I’d like to highlight the birds which made the most progress over the course of the competition – the most impressive climbs (hit the big climbs button to see them highlighted!).
The little penguin had a great competition this year, starting out ranked 25 in the first round and finishing in round eight in an impressive eighth position. As a big penguin fan, this is a great result.
The other notable climb comes from the peregrine falcon. The speedy raptor came from 28th position in the first round to finish at 14th in the penultimate round, no doubt getting a boost in publicity as people watched Melbourne’s beloved falcon chicks fledge and learn to fly.
Where we landed when voting went dark
Righto, time for a recap.
Bird of the year began with a longlist of 50 birds, nominated by you, lovely readers. You then voted for your favourite every day, and every day the lowest-ranking five birds were eliminated until 10 remained.
On the final day of voting, tallies were hidden, which means none of us know which bird has won the crown until the Guardian Australia editor, Lenore Taylor, opens the fateful envelope this afternoon.
What we do know, however, is the ranking of birds before voting went dark at 12.01am on Tuesday. This is where things stood at that time:
1. Tawny frogmouth
2. Baudin’s black cockatoo
3. Gang-gang cockatoo
4. Willie wagtail
5. Bush stone-curlew
6. Southern emu-wren
7. Laughing kookaburra
8. Little penguin
9. Spotted pardalote
10. Wedge-tailed eagle
Our bird-data gurus will bring you some analysis soon on how the voting played out this year, but what I can tell you is that this ranking was very consistent across the eight open voting rounds, though we did see a couple of curveballs.
Welcome
Good morning folks and happy bird-day! Welcome to the 2025 bird of the year live blog.
I’m Stephanie Convery, your official bird correspondent for today (and unofficially every other day) and I’ll be with you as we count down to the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the announcement of the 2025 Guardian/BirdLife Australia bird of the year.
We’ve got all sorts of bird treats in store for you this morning, including intriguing bird facts, voting analysis and an update on some of the campaigns we’ve seen developing over the past few weeks.
Most importantly, we’ll be livestreaming the announcement ceremony from 12.30pm AEDT. You’ll be able to watch it here on the Guardian website and also on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. I’ll share those links with you soon.
So grab a coffee, join in the conversation in the comments, send me your avian inspired thoughts at stephanie.convery@theguardian.com or share the best bird stuff you’ve seen with me on Bluesky (@gingerandhoney.bsky.social) or X if you’re still using it (@gingerandhoney).
Let’s get stuck in!
