Bird of the Year is in the home stretch, with the winner set to be announced on Morning Report on Monday morning.
Campaign managers have been working hard to get their bird into the top spot and some were willing to argue their case to RNZ.
Moho pererū/banded rail campaign manager Jacques de Satge was emphatic that any vote for a rail was a winning vote, but his campaign focused on the fact the moho pererū is in serious trouble.
"The banded rail is really an underbird, one that we don't know anything about. So, I can name a couple of rails like the snipe's rail and a Dieffenbach's rail, and you would have never heard of those. Those have gone extinct within the last couple of centuries, and so what we're seeing with the banded rail is a bird that's making its way slowly towards extinction and we're not noticing that."
Kārearea/NZ Falcon campaigner Frances Wright admitted she has a feisty bird, one that made headlines in early 2022 for swooping passers-by in Wellington.
"My apologies on behalf of the kārearea to that victim, but I think what your question points to is a real critical part of kārearea conservation, and that's the fact that they're actually really misunderstood birds."
Wright said the kārearea is facing human-introduced threats like wind turbines and powerlines, and while people may think the karearea is capable of standing up for itself it actually does need help.
"I don't want to step out of line by saying this, but if I were a kārearea, and my brothers and sisters were being, sort of, slaughtered by rotating wind turbines, I probably would have a peck at a person from time to time."
Meanwhile, Ariel Heswall is sticking up for the seabirds and has started a campaign for the Tītī/Cook's Petrel.
"We have this great hotspot for seabirds, and these little Cook's Petrels. They only breed in these areas, and many of them are very vulnerable to threats, especially anthropogenic threats such as plastic, sometimes they're caught in fishing vessels, and of course, they're really vulnerable to light pollution, especially across Auckland.
"So, we need to have more conversations about Cook's Petrels, and seabirds as part of Aotearoa because Aotearoa is known for this amazing place, of the land of the kiwi, the takahē, the kākāpō, but what about all the seabirds and these little Cooks Petrels, which live right next door to us and in our waters?"
The karearea has won Bird of the Year once, ten years ago in 2012, but the moho pererū and tītī are both winless.
De Satge said it's about time some of the underbirds get to shine.
"You get these big glamorous birds, you can call them over birds if you like, the ones that featured in nature documentaries, the ones that get so much airtime on a day-to-day basis. If you've got David Attenborough in your corner, you don't really need bird of the year.
"So, I think that the under birds, they're desperate for attention, because that attention turns into conservation action, and so if we can conserve them, they'd hold just as much value to our ecosystems, to our story in New Zealand, as any of the over birds do."
Asked who they think should be taken out of the competition, Heswall and Wright said it was the right call for the bat to stand down this year, while de Satge would be keen to see the Australian harrier/kahu bow out as it eats banded rails.
Voting for Bird of the Year closes at 5pm on Sunday, and the winner will be announced on Morning Report on Monday at 7.45am.
