How voting works

Rank your top-five choices to decide which bird will be crowned Bird of the Year.

Voting is based on an instant runoff voting system, which is similar to the system used in New Zealand local elections. When you vote, you can rank up to five of your favourite birds, with number 1 indicating your favourite bird, number 2 indicating your second favourite bird, and so on. It’s no problem if you want to vote for fewer than five birds.

Include an underbird in your top-five birds!

Are you ready to discover some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s best-kept secrets? This year we’re putting a spotlight on some of our understated underbirds. Look for the underbird icon, use the underbird search filter, and most importantly of all - make sure to include an underbird in your top-five votes!

How the winner is decided

The number 1 votes cast are tallied in a first round of counting. If no bird has more than half of the number 1 votes, the bird with the least number 1 votes is eliminated and next choice of people who voted for that bird are given to the remaining birds.

This process continues until one bird has a majority of votes and is crowned Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau - Bird of the Year.