Philstar.com
November 15, 2022|8:21 am
WELLINGTON, New Zealand– A small mountain-dwelling wren was the surprise winner Monday of New Zealand’s questionable bird of the year competitors, which even had Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a flap.
The piwauwau rock wren punched above its 20-gram weight, flying under the radar to win the yearly contest ahead of popular fellow native competitors, the little penguin and the kea.
Fans of the wren established a Facebook page to help the outsider skyrocket up the last rankings when the fortnight-long survey closed Monday.
” It’s not the size, it’s the underbird you elect that counts,” composed one fan.
The yearly competitors ruffled citizens’ plumes in years past after a native bat was enabled to go into, then won, the 2021 title.
There was likewise protest this year after the flightless kakapo– a two times previous winner called the world’s fattest parrot– was disallowed from going to offer others a possibility.
The yearly bird charm contest run by ecological group Forest and Bird is popular with New Zealanders, consisting of the nation’s leading political leaders.
The leader of the opposition, Christopher Luxon, required to Twitter — where else?– over the weekend to back the wrybill, a river bird with a distinct bent beak.
On Monday, New Zealand’s prime minister was briefly ruffled live on air when asked if she had actually elected her preferred bird.
” No I have not yet– you can’t simply chuck a questionable concern at me without a caution!,” Ardern stated with a smile.
New Zealand’s leader exposed she will “constantly and permanently” be faithful to the black petrel, which just types on the North Island however can fly as far as Ecuador, and she hopes the 2023 competitors “will be its year”.
