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Farewell for now
And with the swift parrot taking the title of 2023 Australian bird of the year, our 2023 poll has come to a close.
Thank you for manning your avian campaigns, casting your votes and tuning in. See you back here in two years for the next bird of the year poll.
We leave you now with some reading …
Lisa Cox’s coverage of the critically endangered swift parrot’s narrow win:
Sean Dooley’s reflections on Australian’s connections to our birds:
And BirdLife Australia’s Aussie Bird Count, a citizen science occasion curating a snapshot of our avian panorama:
Bird of the yr 2023 up to date ballot
The hen of the yr 2023 ballot has been up to date with the ultimate votes and rankings. You can have a look right here:
And give CSIRO’s playlist of music to birdwatch to a pay attention within the meantime – appears to be like like there are some tunes for each the celebrating and the crestfallen (although I haven’t noticed any Taylor Swift numbers for workforce swift parrot but):
Fun reality: our @atlaslivingaust has greater than 20,600 data of swift parrots, with data relationship again to the 1860s!
If the hotly-contested vote has whetted your urge for food for birdwatching, we have got the right playlist for you. 👇 https://t.co/guWDD8OrwD
— CSIRO (@CSIRO) October 6, 2023
Team tawny frogmouth are already reconvening after a disappointing loss – sights are set on the subsequent ballot.
Meanwhile, different tawny frogmouth followers are taking a second for a can of tawny “grogmouth” beer.
“We’re big tawny frogmouth fans in the northern beaches of Sydney (even when our local resident Tammy is keeping us from our sleep),” Duncan Clarke says.
“What better way to commiserate the tawny not taking out the big prize (again!) than with a few cans.”
Looks like Australia’s nationwide science company are Swifties:
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Shoutout to the cockatoo operating this weblog – what a very good sport.
Swift parrots want habitat safety, conservationists say
The swift parrot’s victory places a highlight on endangered species’ want for habitat safety. And with plans for land clearing close to a NSW mine the place critically endangered swift parrots have been discovered, advocates level to a failure in Australia’s environmental legal guidelines.
Read extra from Lisa Cox’s reporting right here:
The detection of an elevated variety of critically endangered swift parrots close to a coal mine in north-west New South Wales highlights flaws in Australia’s nationwide environmental legal guidelines, advocates say.
Conservationists referred to as on the federal authorities to guard remaining habitat for the swift parrot within the Leard state forest from additional clearing.
It comes after winter surveys carried out by mining firm Idemitsu noticed 21 parrots in an space of the forest close to its Boggabri coal mine website, in line with meeting minutes. An identical variety of parrots (20) have been detected the earlier yr, up from 13 in 2012.
The Lock the Gate Alliance and BirdLife Australia stated they have been involved additional clearing for mining was deliberate within the Leard state forest, regardless of the recognized presence of swift parrots within the space.
Who backed the winners?
Congratulations to trending workforce swift parrot, who overtook the tawny frogmouth after a neck-and neck-stretch within the last days of voting. And commiserations to workforce tawny frogmouth, who has been made runner up for the third yr. (Best of luck subsequent time guys.)
The swift parrot didn’t want the endorsement of Taylor Swift in spite of everything.
But here’s a have a look at the cheer groups for 2023’s prime two birds, courtesy of Amy Remeikis (who wrote this earlier than the winner was introduced):
The tawny frogmouth is the hen of winners – no less than politically.
Three of the MPs who selected the introverted icons as their hen of the yr additionally occur to be amongst those that took blue ribbon seats off Liberal MPs.
Labor’s Mary Doyle and Michelle Ananda-Rajah and the Kooyong impartial, Dr Monique Ryan, all nominate the socially awkward hide-and-seek champion as their favorite hen, together with Labor’s Josh Burns, who has to this point managed to carry off a robust Greens problem for his seat.
A perennial runner-up, the tawny frogmouth stays within the prime three of the Australian hen of the yr ballot, however it’s going through a robust problem from the swift parrot.
Voted for hen of the yr? Now make your avian affection really matter
Sean Dooley
Sean Dooley of BirdLife Australia has a plea for you avid birdwatchers (“twitchers”) – learn on beneath.
Recently, I visited Tokyo for the primary time and was instantly struck by the hen calls I’d hear at every prepare station. In an city conglomeration of 37 million individuals, it was a pleasing shock to assume birds have been thriving. It wasn’t till I heard the distinctive two-note name of a cuckoo that I grew to become suspicious.
It was then that I found that they piped in hen sounds to assist visually impaired individuals navigate across the extraordinarily busy stations. In the huge megapolis itself there have been only a few birds. With the dearth of garbage on the streets, there have been hardly even any pigeons or crows in contrast with Australian cities.
The lack of real background hen noise started to unnerve me. Several recent research have proven how vital birdsong may be for our bodily and psychological well being. Having grown up with the sounds of magpies carolling and wattlebirds squawking, essentially the most overseas side of Japan for me was not the language, tradition or meals, however the avian silence.
This was introduced home after I recorded a larger variety of hen species when transferring between the worldwide and home terminals at Brisbane airport on returning home than I’d for a whole day in Tokyo. And boy, have been they loud – rainbow lorikeets, noisy miners and figbirds all yammering away. They could have been “songless bright birds” to Adam Lindsay Gordon and his colonial mates, however the inside pleasure this Aussie soundtrack brings is incalculable.
How did voting play out?
Nick Evershed
Here’s the round-up from myself and the remainder of the information workforce, who run the technical aspect of the hen of the yr (notably my colleague Andy Ball who has put in an incredible effort to make sure the ballot runs easily and isn’t derailed by bots!).
Total votes over the entire ballot numbered simply over 321,000, with simply over 55,000 votes solid within the last spherical.
As foreshadowed in our earlier evaluation, the swift parrot was capable of surge from tenth place in spherical 4 to take out the highest spot within the last spherical:
Here’s how the ultimate spherical of voting performed out in actual time (I’ve began the cumulative vote depend from 6am, although voting was open from 12:01am, as not all birds have been on the board earlier than then):
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Click here if you’re having trouble seeing the animated chart
As you may see, the tawny frogmouth was within the lead initially, solely to be overtaken by the swift parrot simply after 10am. The gang-gang cockatoo was solidly in third place for your complete time, however by no means seemed prefer it might unseat both of the highest two.
Here’s how the ultimate votes for every hen landed:
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