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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Calla Wahlquist

Magpie wins Australian bird of the year poll – as it happened

Til next year, twitchers

There is a magpie carolling outside my window, calling time on our live coverage of the 2017 Australian bird of the year vote. Thank you so much for your enthusiastic campaigning for our avian friends. We really do have an astonishing variety of birds in Australia and we should celebrate them more often.

I will leave you with some soothing words from Dr John Martin for the ibis lobby, who are still smarting from their shock loss this morning.

Martin is a research ecologist who specialises in the Australian white ibis. He writes:

Their colonisation of urban areas, and associated shift to a fast-food diet, is a remarkable example of their adaptability …

Truly, if you asked anyone a month ago if the Australian white ibis would come second in a popular vote as the bird of the year I struggle to imagine even one person seriously predicting this result. I would have said it was unlikely to place in the top 50. This is a stunning result.

You can read the full piece here:

Updated

More scenes from behind the scenes of the bird of the year vote.

This is mammalian discrimination.
This is mammalian discrimination. Illustration: First Dog on the Moon
A media superstar.
A media superstar. Illustration: First Dog on the Moon

Updated

The #birdoftheyear vote summoned in a brief, beautiful period of bird photos replacing political news and the sense of impending doom that usually populates Twitter. It was a lovely time, and we are keen for it to continue.

Keep posting your bird photos. We need them more than ever.

Updated

Further evidence that the magpie was a deserving winner.

Decent set of pipes.

Thanks to Amanda Dell on Twitter for that link.

Updated

The birds are reacting with reckless abandon and mild violence.

Magpies: a cultural icon.

All right, steady on.

(This may happen.)

Updated

Abbott’s booby and other endangered species

Bird lovers had the opportunity to nominate a favourite bird that was not on our original list, and the most popular write-ins, by far, were the yellow-tailed black cockatoo, the black-throated finch and Abbott’s booby.

The latter is a real thing. Abbott’s booby, or Papasula abbotti, is a seabird found on Christmas Island and is listed as endangered by both the EPBC and the IUCN red list. There are an estimated 2,500 breeding pairs.

It received 243 write-in votes, all of which I am sure were concerned with the conservation of this endangered species and not making a reference to anything else.

The yellow-tailed black cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus funereus, is also endangered. It received 304 votes.

The black-throated finch, Poephila cincta, received 291 votes. The southern subspecies, Poephila cincta cincta, is listed as endangered.

Updated

Magpies have been compared to Donald Trump, Malcolm Turbull, and Harry Potter this morning (that last one by me, sorry) and I have to say I don’t think they deserve any of it.

I admit to having a deep affection for magpies after being woken up by the blighters carolling on the TV cable at 4am every morning of my teenage years, and do not like to see them slighted in this way.

They are very smart and good and we should be proud of them, even if they are a bit violent.

Updated

I’m not sure the AFL can claim this, tbh.

How did parrot lovers vote?

I’ve been asked to dissect why Australia’s vast array of parrot species did not do better in the poll. The simple answer is that we have so many parrot species that it split the vote. No one could agree on a favourite.

Most popular was the rainbow lorikeet in 6th place with 6,041 votes, followed by the sulphur-crested cockatoo at 11th with 4,051 votes; king parrot 12th with 3,449 votes, and the galah 13th with 3,405 votes.

Then we have gang-gangs 15th with 2,871 votes; crimson rosellas in 19th spot with 2,379 votes, the stupidly endangered orange-bellied parrot in 21st spot with 2,324 votes; and Perth’s Carnaby’s black cockatoo with 2,249 (a personal favourite of mine, we used to have them in the backyard).

The 50s pink Major Mitchell’s cockatoo was 27th with 1,828 votes and the common budgie 30th with 1,594 votes.

They were all the parrot species we included in the original (limited by necessity) list. Total parrot votes: 30,191.

We also had a huge number of write-in votes for parrots, including 11 for the corella and one specifically for male superb parrots.

Updated

More from inside the bird of the year awards

I’d like to thank my mum, my dad, and the cyclist I swooped yesterday
I’d like to thank my mum, my dad and the cyclist I swooped yesterday. Illustration: First Dog on the Moon

Updated

BuzzFeed’s Jenna Guillaume ran an alternative version of the Guardian Australia/BirdLife poll and is displeased with the official results.

Sorry, Jenna. This is a very serious poll – we can’t tolerate this kind of branch stacking.

Updated

Dissent.

Deputy culture editor Steph Convery is being held hostage by a flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos, demanding to know why they only reached 11th place in the bird of the year poll.

Cockies received 4,051 votes, or 2.7% of the whole. Supporters of the cockatoo must mobilise. We can rectify this next year!

Updated

If you are still upset that the magpie has taken out the top spot, take a look at this piece by Karen Wyld on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relationships to birds.

She writes:

Raelee Lancaster, a Koori poet and research assistant, voted for the magpie. She told me, “I would say my connection to the magpie is somewhat of a cultural one. I grew up learning some Awabakal stories, as that is the land on which I was raised, and I learnt a bit about magpie Dreaming as a kid, but I don’t know if the things I learnt were my mob’s stories.

Wyld voted for the wedge-tailed eagle, as did the Yorta Yorta woman Rebecca Hunt.

Hunt said:

The wedge-tailed eagle is significant to me because of Bunjil and his significance to creation, spirit and Victorian Aboriginal peoples. And on a personal note, they are majestic creatures who possess a beautiful balance of strength and grace and, specifically, they are monogamous birds who mate for life. That’s the kind of loyalty that I respect and that I see often reflected in our mob.

Updated

A very accurate depiction of what happened at the Guardian Australia offices a short time ago, when we announced the winner of the Guardian Australia/BirdLife bird of the year poll.

Thunderous applause for the Australian magpie
Thunderous applause for the Australian magpie. Illustration: First Dog on the Moon

Updated

A brief discussion of ducks

We didn’t include any species in our original list, an oversight that many of you sought to correct by writing in your own vote.

Most popular was the Australian wood duck, Chenonetta jubata, which, I hate to break it to you, may actually be a goose. Either way, it got 15 votes.

Next was musk duck (Biziura lobata) with 11 votes, followed by the Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa) with nine votes and the pink-eared duck (Malcorhynchus membranaceus) with seven votes.

There were two votes for the blue-billed duck (Oxyura australis) and one for “blue-billed dick”, which I’m going to hope was the same thing.

We also received seven votes for “duck” and one for “duck <3” which I think should count as at least two votes.

There were two votes for the Radjah shelduck or burdekin duck (tadorna radjah) and one apiece for whistling ducks, both wandering and plumed.

Opinion is divided.

Over on ABC News Breakfast, BirdLife’s Sean Dooley has been explaining the appeal of the magpie which, on the surface, seems a fairly conservative choice.

(Indeed Guardian Australia’s deputy editor, Will Woodward, thinks the popularity of the magpie and white ibis shows the essential conservatism of the Australian voting populace. I think it means shows the essential Australian desire to vote for the underdog – both species are much-maligned.)

Here’s Sean Dooley:

Magpies are easily tameable and people have a great connection with them. They love to feed them. Clearly, there are a lot of people out there who have a special relationship with a magpie.

On the ibis, often described and dismissed as a “bin chicken”, Dooley said:

This is our Ibis McIbis vote, they are remarkable birds and they’re resilient. People don’t like them because they come into the cities, like Sydney or Brisbane, and steal your lunch out of your hands or go into the bins. But they only do that because their natural wetlands in the Murray-Darling have been drained and altered so it is not suitable for them. The prime minister talks about being agile and adaptable – the ibis embodies that Australian spirit.

Updated

The decision has not been universally popular.

Our new overlords.

You shall call me king.
You shall call me king. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

You can watch our live discussion of the bird of the year results here:

Updated

Magpie wins bird of the year

Surprising everyone who has put cable ties on their bicycle helmet to ward off an attack, 2017’s bird of the year is the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) with a whopping 19,926 votes – that’s 13.3% of the total votes.

I’m not saying this was First Dog’s doing as unofficial leader of the Any Bird But the Ibis coalition, but I’m not saying it wasn’t First Dog’s doing, either.

Nipping at its heels was the Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) with 19,083 votes, or 12.7%; followed by the laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguinea) with 10,953 or 7.3%.

The top 10 are:

  1. Australian magpie
  2. Australian white ibis
  3. Laughing kookaburra
  4. Tawny frogmouth
  5. Superb fairywren
  6. Rainbow lorikeet
  7. Willy wagtail
  8. Wedge-tailed eagle
  9. Southern cassowary
  10. Splendid fairywren

Updated

The popularity of the #birdoftheyear poll surprised even us, an office full of warring bird nerds. We understand many of you have taken issue with the limitations of our voting system.

Indeed, the University of Melbourne student union passed a motion condemning Guardian Australia for failing to provide preferential voting.

To which I’d say: Let’s just focus on the birds, hey?

Updated

Portrait of a ruthless killer

In case you forget, birds are just feathered dinosaurs.

For those wondering, the bird being used as a snack here is either a cockatoo or a corella chick. Slightly morbid but, as kookaburras routinely eat snakes and other reptiles, it’s not really that surprising.

Nature, ain’t it grand?

Updated

A very considered opinion:

Currawongs have a beautiful song but I must confess my opinion of them is coloured by the 1990s Silver Brumby cartoon, which depicts the currawong as Zazu but without Rowan Atkinson’s charm.

Listen to their beautiful music.

I know my colleague Steph Convery is barracking for the sulphur-crested cockatoo to win #birdoftheyear. She even feeds them, and spoke to experts this week who said that is OK despite warnings to the contrary.

According to Holly Parsons from BirdLife, feeding wild birds, provided you do a bit of research and pick the right food, is:

... really good for us, mentally and physically.

Updated

Confidence.

The oft-ignored King Island brown thornbill, named most likely to go extinct by BirdLife’s threatened species committee, which is probably the worst yearbook award, received two write-in votes in the poll.

We also received four votes for the brown thornbill, Acanthiza pusilla, which is found down the east coast and in Tasmania. Said one voter: “I have them in my garden. They are tiny with beautiful flittering activity. A classic twitterer.”

We did get four votes for the tiny, adorable Mallee emuwren. Look at it, though – it clearly deserved more.

They weight the same as a teaspoon of sugar! Their eggs are the size of peas!

Sadly, despite me shilling for them and other little brown birds in this article, the King Island brown scrubtit did not receive a single vote.

Updated

All your bird photos are better than ours

On Friday night we asked you to send us your bird photos and you responded in marvellous form with photos that, frankly, we had to check to make sure you hadn’t nicked them from Google images. THEY WERE THAT GOOD.

Here are some of my favourites:

Carnaby’s cockatoos, endemic to Perth and southwest Western Australia.
A juvenile Powerful owl.
Pack of flamin’ galahs.
Terrifyingly close close-up of an ibis’s eye.

You can add your own photos here.

Updated

The votes have been counted

It’s time. After three weeks, one automated voting scandal, several social media campaigns and 149,848 votes, we will finally learn who the public has chosen to be Australia’s 2017 bird of the year.

Thank you for joining us at this early hour. There’s an opening here to talk about early birds and worms but that kind of frippery would imply this is anything but serious, and that will not do. If the past three weeks have taught us anything, it’s that the Australian public holds very firm and passionate views about its birdlife.

The results will be announced at 7.45am by Birdlife’s Sean Dooley on ABC news breakfast, as well as here on this blog and through Periscope and Facebook Live because this is the most exciting thing to happen at the Guardian Australia offices for several months and we will not play it cool.

Grab a coffee, take a recording of the birdsong outside your window and post it on Twitter, and let’s settle in to see the results. You can follow along with the #BirdOfTheYear hashtag on the social media of your choice, tweet us at @GuardianAus, and tweet me at @callapilla.

Yes, my avatar is a cassowary. That’s not a giveaway.

Let the countdown begin.

Updated

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