Voting opens for Bird of the Year 2024

The team at Antarctica New Zealand have managed to get the Adélie penguin into the competition after a "quite significant and heartfelt plea". Photo: Supplied / DOC / Jim Watts

A record number of volunteers have signed up to campaign for the 2024 Bird of the Year competition, which is set to have fresh controversy over the birds selected to compete.

The annual event is back after last year's controversial Bird of the Century competition was hijacked by US talk show host John Oliver, with hundreds of thousands of votes pouring in from around the globe to support Oliver's pick, the pūteketeke.

Forest and Bird chief executive Nicola Toki told Morning Report not every New Zealand bird had been entered in this year's competition.

"We have a lot of species of birds in New Zealand, and we've had a lot of people put their hands up to be champions for the birds.

"There are still birds out there that need a champion."

In a move sure to ruffle a few feathers, the team at Antarctica New Zealand have managed to get the Adélie penguin into the competition after a "quite significant and heartfelt plea".

The Adélie penguin spends most of its time in the Ross Sea in Antarctica, although Toki said that there have been at least six records of the penguin "getting a bit lost and turning up here" in New Zealand.

The kākāpō is back in the mix after missing out in the past few years. Photo: Supplied / Jake Osborne

The other big talking point of this year's competition is the kākāpō being back in the mix after missing out in the past few years.

"There are plenty of people throwing their support behind our birds, which is great, because we love our birds but 80 percent of them are in trouble, so we should learn about them while we're having fun."

Toki also discussed some of the birds that are not doing so well, and was hoping the competition would help people to recognise the situation they were in.

"The great thing about Bird of the Year is you learn about birds you may have never heard of before. I don't know if many people know about our kākāriki karaka, that's a comeback story. The little Shore plover often found on the Chatams, that's a comeback story.

"Christopher Luxon, a couple of years ago, threw his weight behind the wrybill, which is one of our very endangered braided river birds."

Voting for the competition is now open.