Pūteketeke wins Bird of the Century, with a record number of votes placed in 2023

The pūteketeke, also known as the Australasian crested grebe, is New Zealand’s Bird of the Century.

The pūteketeke has been crowned as New Zealand’s Bird of the Century.

The native bird, also known as the Australasian crested grebe, was boosted to the top of the pecking order by American-British comedian John Oliver, who launched an “alarmingly aggressive” campaign for the otherwise lesser-known bird on Monday November 7 (NZ time).

He hoped for the “biggest landslide in the history of this magnificent competition”.

More than 350,000 people from 195 countries voted in the hotly contested annual competition run by conservation charity Forest and Bird, with the pūteketeke claiming 290,374, or about 83% of the vote.

Second place went to the North Island Brown Kiwi, which received 12,904 votes, and third to the kea with 12,060.

It’s the most votes the Bird of the Year competition has seen since it began in 2005. The previous record was 56,733 votes in 2021, when the pekapeka-tou-roa (long-tailed bat) won.

Youtube: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon John Oliver features on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, sporting a lifelike pūteketeke costume.

The pūteketeke is considered by the Department of Conservation as nationally vulnerable, meaning the species faces a high risk of extinction in the medium term.

The birds are native to Aotearoa, but can also be found in Australia, Europe and central/southern Asia.

It is estimated there were less than 1000 pūteketeke in New Zealand in 2012. The birds reside in lakes in the South Island, but are thought to be extinct in the North Island with only the odd individual spotted.

The situation was dire for the pūteketeke in the 1980s, when numbers dropped to a low of 200.

Numbers are slowly increasing, thanks to the efforts of volunteer groups such as the Lake Wānaka Grebe Project, which has seen more than 500 chicks hatch from its nest platforms.

David Hallett/Stuff Pūteketeke are known for carrying their chicks around on their backs.

“It’s great to have a successful bird as an ambassador for all New Zealand birds to show that even threatened species can bounce back if we give them a hand,” said Petrina Duncan, Forest and Bird’s grebe coordinator for its Central Otago Lakes Branch.

The diving water bird’s biggest threats include predators such as stoats, ferrets and cats, loss of nesting habitats due to draining of wetlands and disturbance from human activities such as boating, and the establishment of hydro schemes which can swamp their floating nests and destroy eggs.

The birds are known to ferry their chicks on their backs and mate by approaching prospective partners with a mouthful of wet grass before chest bumping each other. They are also known to eat feathers to make them vomit, to get rid of unwanted parasites.

Forest and Bird chief executive Nicola Toki said the pūteketeke – a first time winner – was an outside contender for the competition, but “catapulted to the top spot thanks to its unique looks, adorable parenting style, and propensity for puking”.

“We’re not surprised these charming characteristics caught the eye of an influential bird enthusiast with a massive following.”

Leanne Buchan/Supplied The mulleted, throwing up bird was an outside contender for the top spot prior to John Oliver’s campaign, Forest and Bird chief executive Nicola Toki said.

“We promised controversy but didn’t quite expect this. We’re stoked to see the outpouring of passion, creativity and debate that this campaign has ignited.”

Forest and Bird expected to release the top 10 birds later on Wednesday.

Bird of the Year never seems to go down without some skulduggery, with fraudulent votes placed on at least five occasions requring an independent scruniteer to be brought on board, and this year was no different.

The extra publicity in 2023 saw thousands of fraudulent votes discarded during the vote counting process.

This included 40,000 votes cast by a single person for the tawaki piki toka (eastern rockhopper penguin) and 3403 votes from a person in Pennsylvania, who somehow managed to vote once every three seconds.

“We know birds inspire incredible passion, but we encourage people to channel that passion into productive efforts rather than trying to rig an election,” Toki said.

Oliver, whose campaign included a huge pūteketeke puppet and an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show while wearing a lifelike pūteketeke costume, has long had a fascination with New Zealand.

Previous talking points have included the 2015-2016 flag referendum, which allowed everyday Kiwis to submit designs – including the popular Lazer Kiwi flag – and the infamous incident in 2016 where former National Party politician Steven Joyce had a toy dildo thrown at his face in Waitangi.

Oliver said he became the bird’s official campaign manager after he noticed the competition was not geo-restricted to Aotearoa.

SUPPLIED John Oliver launches global campaign for his favourite Bird of the Century.

“You want elegance, I’ll give you elegance,” he said of the pūteketeke mating dance, “where they both grab a clump of wet grass and chest bump each other, before standing around unsure of what to do next.”

“Even its name is fun to say. It feels like your tongue is tap-dancing,” he said during the televised campaign launch.

The global campaign involved billboards asking people to vote for the pūteketeke in New Zealand, Mumbai, Japan, Paris, London, Brazil and a small town in the US state of Wisconsin.

Oliver’s campaign saw Forest and Bird push back the competition results by two days, after an influx of votes in the “hundreds of thousands”.

While Oliver may have a genuine passion for the mulleted, “thing of beauty” pūteketeke, New Zealand-based bird lovers have accused him of foreign interference.

Campaigners for the kākāriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeet) put up billboards of their own, requesting Oliver not “disrupt the pecking order”.

votethisbird.com Oliver’s campaign included a website and billboards in a range of countries.

Bird of the Year was started in 2005 to raise awareness for native birds, as many are in danger of becoming extinct.

In looking for Bird of the Century for 2023, species that have already gone extinct were eligible, including the huia, New Zealand thrush, bush wren, South Island snipe and laughing owl.

Anyone who wants to help protect native birds may volunteer with their local Forest and Bird branch to help remove weeds, control predators and restore habitats.

“Doing your bit for the birds could be as simple as keeping your cat in at night, donating a predator trap through Give a Trap, or adding your voice to Forest and Bird’s collective call-to-action for birds, and for te taiao (the environment) in New Zealand,” Toki said.

Bird of the Century top 10 results