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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Naaman Zhou

Bird of the year: black-throated finch triumphs in 2019 poll – as it happened

Bird of the year winner 2019: Australia has crowned the black-throated finch in the Guardian / Bird Life Australia poll.
Bird of the year winner 2019: Australia has crowned the black-throated finch in the Guardian / Bird Life Australia poll. Composite: Getty Images/Alamy

And with that, we’ll be wrapping up our live coverage for this morning.

The black-throated finch, on debut, has landed with the biggest winning margin in bird of the year history.

It’s an important result for the highly endangered bird. A real sense of urgency propelled this small passerine, whose southern subspecies has less than 800 individuals left, up to top spot.

And in its win, we can see the seeds of the future. Is this the dawn of the highly coordinated, online campaign format – a la New Zealand? For sure, in the washup of the cassowary round one debacle, the message was clear: Organise early. Tawny frogmouth supporters are now saying the same thing.

Elsewhere, we saw a crash in the ibis vote. The magpie is off licking its wounds. The wedge-tailed eagle only just scraped into the top 10 but soared up and up, in a proud performance. It wasn’t to be for the superb fairy-wen, the sulphur-crested cockatoo, the willie wagtail and others, but there’s no shame there.

As BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley said, this was a different kind of win. “The sad reality is that many of our birds are becoming iconic for all the wrong reasons, they are now emblematic of the extinction crisis.”

Now our eyes turn to the future. The innovative two-round system added an unpredictable element this year. Who knows what zany ideas our poll organisers have next. And with attempted voter fraud in both iterations now, I’m excited to see the next battle of wits between these criminals and our data team.

What new birds, drama and stories will future bird of the years bring? Nobody knows.

Right now, it’s the finch’s moment. Until next time.

Updated

Magpies stage walkout

Magpies, the 2017 winners, have staged a walkout after learning this morning’s result.

Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor and magpie supporter, captured this image from her home this morning.

A magpie walks out upon learning the result of 2019 bird of the year
A magpie walks out upon learning the result of 2019 bird of the year. Photograph: Lorena Allam/The Guardian

Updated

'Time to save our finch!'

And here is the statement from one of the key online campaigns that swept the finch to victory:

What a well-fledged bunch of numbers that vote is!

We know why the finch is so popular and it’s fitting to recognise this beautiful bird in the middle of all-consuming out-of-season bushfires. Right now, the finch’s habitat is being stripped for yet another thermal coalmine as our federal government resists action against climate change impacts.

Thank you to all who voted for the black-throated finch. Thank you to the scientists fighting to save the finch’s remaining population. Thank you to the volunteers on the frontlines promoting discussion on the climate emergency in our national and local communities.

I’m looking forward to the next bird of the year poll focusing on endangered species. For now, the black-throated finch is a symbol for all of them. It’s time for every voter to activate and demand our leaders give us back our future. Time to save our finch!

Updated

From the Biodiversity Heritage Library:

An interesting question now looms over future bird of the year contests – is this the start of a new era of political, environmental, or at least highly coordinated winners? Or will we revert next time to a purely avian, less topical choice?

Online campaigns are not necessarily a bad thing. In New Zealand, that’s how it has worked for years, with radio stations, publications, huge Facebook pages and even real-life poster squads coalescing around birds every year, with full endorsements and pitched campaigns.

Updated

I have been wondering how votes would flow from supporters of birds that didn’t make the cut: in particular those who supported other cockatoos.

The Carnaby’s black cockatoo and the gang-gang cockatoo came 13th and 14th, but it doesn’t look like their voters swung in behind the sulphur-crested cockatoo, which dropped from fourth to seventh in the final round. Just because one cockatoo is your favourite doesn’t mean you’ll happily transfer your support to another.

The rainbow lorikeet likewise failed to benefit from the votes of a bunch of other parrots which didn’t make the top 10.

The lack of general support for cockatoos and parrots makes sense if you assume that a lot of voters choose a bird they see regularly. Voters for Carnaby’s black cockatoo (present in southern Western Australia) were unlikely to switch to vote for an east-coast cockatoo.

Updated

I have some comment from one of the lead online campaigns for the finch coming soon.

The Queensland-based spokesman is just dropping the kids off to school first. Daylight savings means that it was only 5.30am when the result was announced.

An early pick for next year’s winner.

Updated

Analysis

More than 54,000 votes were cast in the first round of voting, but the second round attracted just 32,000 votes. This is pretty typical of runoff elections. Some voters are fatigued by the need to come back to vote again, and others are discouraged by the absence of their favourite.

Yet despite the drop in turnout, five of the birds in the final round managed to improve on their first-round total.

The black-throated finch improved from 13.2% to 34.5%, with more than 11,000 votes. That means more than one in three votes in the final round were cast for the finch, a walloping victory in a 10-horse (10-bird?) race.

The tawny frogmouth came a clear second with 3,351 votes – this was just over 10% of votes in the second round, compared with 4.4% in the first round. We can’t really say if the frogmouth benefited from voters switching from birds that had been knocked out, or a bandwagon effect as it became the obvious non-finch option in second place.

The superb fairy-wren also did well, jumping from sixth to third with 8.9% of the vote.

I had a theory in 2017 that the magpie and ibis partly did well because they are divisive choices: those who really like them concentrated their votes while those who don’t were scattered, and that a runoff system would disadvantage those birds. This wasn’t wrong, with the magpie dropping from second to fourth and the ibis dropping from fifth to a distant 10th.

The final round was also a good result for the wedge-tailed eagle, who jumped from 10th to sixth with about 700 more votes than in the first round. It appears that the eagle peaked just at the right time.

Updated

From ibis fans:

Here’s how round one played out. That finch lead basically held for the rest of the competition.

I would also like to hear from some magpie voters. Are you happy to pass on the crown? Or will you be challenging the result, hanging on to the faded glory of 2017?

Tweet on #birdoftheyear

Updated

For a while there, the sulphur-crested cockatoo was a frontrunner.

It spent long periods at second in the first round, then ended that first leg at fourth. And there were many, many thousands of other cockatoo votes out there that could have swung in behind it. The galah missing out on 10th, many secretly thought, was a huge boon.

Yet it actually dropped down to seventh. It’s an intriguing result that reveals something about the psychology of runoff elections. For whatever reason, the sulphur-crested lost its sheen.

Analyst Ben Raue does actually have a fascinating explanation for that – to come soon.

Updated

“I would argue there are some similarities with last year’s strong result for the ibis.

“The ibis is not an endangered bird, and it wasn’t successful due to a political campaign, but it does draw support from people who like it, sometimes in spite of its reputation as an unappealing bird. It’s the underdog, hated by many but liked by those who understand where it has come from. It’s exactly the kind of story that can draw votes one year but not do so well the next year.”

And now some psephological analysis:

“The finch’s success shows the power of a campaign, and giving people a reason to vote.

“A lot of people would have voted for their personal favourite bird, but others would have seen the finch as an opportunity to make a point and elevate an endangered but obscure bird to a position among the more famous of our birds. While the finch fell well short of a majority in both rounds, it gained much more concentrated support than other birds who would have mostly attracted votes as the personal favourite bird of some Australians.

“It has a parallel with the New Zealand poll, which recently crowned the yellow-eyed penguin or hoiho as champion. The hoiho is the rarest penguin in the world, with only 225 pairs on the New Zealand mainland, but it managed to attract over 12,000 votes.

“The victories for the finch and hoiho demonstrate that this vote isn’t just about who your ‘favourite bird’ is. People can have multiple favourites and can decide how to vote based on other factors – what bird is endangered, or who has a chance of winning. A bandwagon can be attractive.”

Updated

Full results

Those final standings:

  1. Black-throated finch – 11,153
  2. Tawny frogmouth – 3,351
  3. Superb fairy-wren – 2,875
  4. Australian magpie – 2,725
  5. Laughing kookaburra – 2,650
  6. Wedge-tailed eagle – 2,402
  7. Sulphur-crested cockatoo – 2,341
  8. Willie wagtail – 1,970
  9. Rainbow lorikeet – 1,711
  10. Australian white ibis – 1,147

Total valid* final round votes – 32,325
Total valid* first round votes – 54,515

*We excluded a lot of you sneaky double voters. Just opening the browser again in incognito mode is not enough.

Updated

There are beautiful illustrations here. As Sean Dooley told us earlier: “They are subtly stunning ... They are a literal breath-taker when you see them.”

Updated

Oh the ibis. What happened.

I would say this is a huge fall from grace, but we all know the ibis was never anywhere near grace anyway.

This is rather a plummet: from the top of the bin to the soggy bottom. The controversial scavenger came second in 2017, with 19,083 votes! Now it has limped to 10th, and only 1,147.

Not only is that nearly 18,000 less than 2017, it’s actually down on its round-one vote from last week. With every passing day, more desert the ibis.

Updated

A lot of joy right now in the frogmouth camp, who it seems, did not expect to reach as high as second.

It’s a pure and uncynical emotion, gracious to the winner, but full of pride for what they have themselves achieved.

“A superb result for #teamtawnyfrogmouth,” says one, “given that the winner is essentially a protest vote.”

And of course, there are plenty now planning a bigger campaign next time.

Updated

Is she disappointed that we are yet to see a nocturnal bird win?

“I understand the urgency in electing the black-throated finch,” Gorman says. “The tawny frogmouth isn’t the bird Australia needed today, but I hope in the future, we’ll be in a good enough place to move beyond our relentless diurnalism to see the value and inspirational potential in creatures of the night.”

Updated

Tawny frogmouth concedes

Alyx Gorman, Guardian Australia’s lifestyle editor and self-appointed tawny frogmouth campaign head, had this to say:

“Tawny’s near-victory showcases Australia’s creative promise. I hope next year the moon will rise again for this sweet, semi-urban nightjar.

“A living Pokémon with the eyes of a baby and the whiskers of a grandpa may not be the bird we need today, but it speaks of a future where ravers, boomers and ‘oom’-chanting yogis can peaceful coexist in a single animal.”

Updated

Spare a thought for the tawny frogmouth. This unique, bewitching bird could have been the first nocturnal winner of bird of the year.

But that milestone wasn’t to be.

Fourth in 2017, and seventh in round one, the frogmouth came like a bolt from the blue, overhauling the magpie and the similar-looking kookaburra to be best of the rest.

I have approached one of the leaders of the frogmouth campaign for comment, and their concession speech should be with us shortly.

That is, in anyone’s eyes, a landslide for the black-throated finch. Stay with us as we mop up all the reaction – the glory, the tragedy, the concessions, and the inquests.

“Birds express what’s going on in the landscape,” Dooley says. “And we’ve seen what’s happened with the fires. That’s millions of birds in New South Wales that have died in the fires and have lost their habitat.

“Birds sing the landscape, they express it. And so it’s no surprise that the black-throated finch has caught people’s attention. And, unfortunately, these days, Australians are switching on to the fact that these unique birds we have are starting to disappear. And sot hat’s why the black-throated finch has attracted this attention.”

“Probably most Australians didn’t know about this bird a couple of years ago,” Dooley tells ABC Breakfast. “Unfortunately, this bird, even though it is lovely, it’s mainly known because it’s in such peril.

“The southern black-throated finch unfortunately happens to have its last main habitat, last remaining population of any considerable size, is actually at ground zero for the Adani coalmine.”

Updated

Black-throated finch wins

The most endangered bird on the top 10 list, the black-throated finch, has been voted the 2019 Guardian/BirdLife Australia bird of the year.

And it’s a landslide. With more than 30,000 valid votes cast, the finch won with a tremendous 11,153.

The tawny frogmouth came a distant second, with 3,351.

The finch held an early lead for much of the poll and not only held on, but increased its lead in the final round.

But it was still an amazing showing for the frogmouth, who came only seventh in round one, but then charged ahead to second when it mattered. A disappointing result for the magpie – who won in 2017 and was second after round one – slumping to fourth.

Our full report is here:

Updated

The superb fairy-wren has come third.

And the tawny frogmouth is second. Which means ...

Updated

The kookaburra is fifth, and the magpie is fourth!

A slump for the magpie, who won last time in 2017.

The winner will be revealed in minutes! Sean Dooley is on ABC Breakfast right now, about to make the announcement.

Updated

The top 10

Those top 10 of course, were winnowed down from an initial 50. A lot of beloved, big-name birds did not make it through.

The preference flows from those excluded birds could decide today. There are tens of thousands of votes looking for a home. It’s enough to overhaul any frontrunner.

The sulphur-crested cockatoo, you’d think, would soak up the galah’s 1,705 votes, the Carnaby’s black-cockatoo (1,271), the gang-gang cockatoo (1163), the palm cockatoo (328) and at a stretch, the eastern rosella (642).

And whither the cassowary? The hugely popular and deadly bird surged hundreds of votes at the last, but didn’t make it. Perhaps the eagle? The ibis?

Predicting this is often a fool’s game. Momentum is a big factor, and the eagle benefited from the push to secure 10th.

And let’s not forget, a lot of people simply shift their vote in round tw0. The cockatoo could lose its sheen, the superb fairy-wren might look merely OK, after a few days.

Updated

Ben Raue is on hand to provide some psephological analysis of the first round of voting:

“Over 54,000 votes were cast in the first round, with the black-throated finch, a bird threatened by the proposed Adani coalmine, way out in front with 7,234 votes, over 13% of the total vote. The reigning champion magpie came in second with 3,569 votes, or 6.5%.

“Most of the remaining birds in the top 10 are the typical iconic Australian birds with large populations near most of Australia’s human population: the kookaburra, the sulphur-crested cockatoo, the fairy-wren, the rainbow lorikeet, and more left-field choices like the ibis and the tawny frogmouth.

“The final places in the top 10 came down to the wire with frenetic voting producing a photo finish between the willie wagtail, the wedge-tailed eagle and the galah. The eagle and galah had been trading the 10th place back and forth throughout the vote but both gained ground on the willie wagtail on the final day, and in the end the wagtail maintained its spot in ninth by just two votes, with the eagle holding on against the galah by three votes. The gap between ninth and eleventh was just 0.009%.

“A further 2,307 votes were cast for write-in birds, with over 500 of these votes for some type of parrot. Australians really like parrots, and cockatoos in particular, but they don’t seem to be able to fall in line behind one favourite. Eleven parrots (including a number of cockatoo species) were nominated, but Australians had other ideas. Over 200 votes were cast for various types of black cockatoo. This was in addition to the Carnaby’s black cockatoo, who came 13th.

“The cockatiel and crimson rosella also polled well. But by far the leading write-in candidate was the king parrot, who polled 180 candidates, more than two of the officially nominated birds. Keep an eye out for a king parrot on the ballot next time around.”

Updated

Who are the contenders?

Under a new two-round voting system, implemented this year to make the process fairer and more reflective of voter intention, there are 10 birds today snatching at the crown.

They are, in order of how they finished at the end of round one:

  1. Black-throated finch
  2. Australian magpie
  3. Laughing kookaburra
  4. Sulphur-crested cockatoo
  5. Australian white ibis
  6. Superb fairy-wren
  7. Tawny frogmouth
  8. Rainbow lorikeet
  9. Willie wagtail
  10. Wedge-tailed eagle

But, as the last-minute drama of the end of round one showed us, anything can happen in bird of the year.

Those rankings are not set in stone.

Updated

Who will win?

So here we are.

Three weeks, two rounds, 50 birds, then 10, and in a few minutes, one – flying lazily through the sky, medal-in-beak.

Voting closed last night and, in the moments before the curtain rises, it is all up for grabs. The magpie has 2017’s shiny sash in its nest and is looking around jealously.

The poll has been dark for days. For 48 hours, the country’s finest statisticians have been building models, trend lines, big corkboards with red string with birds perched on them.

We’ve had thrills, spills and scandals.

There are 10 birds that could win today, each with their own unique strengths, personalities, regional power bases and, of course, their supporters, squawking in their corners.

The highly endangered black-throated finch was the first round’s breakout star. The magpie won in 2017 with nearly 20,000 votes. The ibis came second, barely a wingflap behind. The kookaburra came third, both this year in round one and in 2017 – surely a sign of some lasting community support.

The frogmouth could be the first nocturnal bird to win, one for the history books. The sulphur-crested cockatoo could mop up the preferences of all its parrot comrades (the galah, Carnaby’s black cockatoo, gang-gang cockatoo and more).

The last time we did this, just one week ago, there were incredible scenes. The electoral commission went into overdrive, the result too close to call, as we scratched in the depths through the write-in votes. And that was just the warm-up.

The winner for the whole thing will be announced after 6.30am AEDT.

Stay tuned.

Updated

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