The election for Bird of the Year is now entering the decisive phase.
What? New Zealand voted a bat “Bird of the Year”? Smart. In German countries, a corresponding surprise maneuver would probably lead to the fact that the holiday plane to Mallorca wins, with all the pandemic renunciations.
But don’t worry, the steel crane is not an option this year. Everything is different again anyway. After the turbulent, almost grassroots democratic round in 2020, when for the first time the entire population was allowed to vote for the bird of the year 2021 from a staggering 307 candidates, the organizing nature conservation association (Nabu) rowed back. It is not like in the past, when a panel of experts alone determined the winner. But this time there are only five applicants. Everyone can vote again.
On the ballot, well, on the voting website (vogeldesjahres.de), it says: House martin, tree sparrow, blood panther, wheatear and hoopoe. All endangered or “soon to be endangered” (the sparrow) bird species. With the choice, the Nabu wants to sharpen the senses for the endangered animal world.
That probably went under a little last year. After the preliminary round, city pigeons, robins and blackbirds were suddenly at the top of the table of the ten finalists at the time. Great birds, of course. But not exactly threatened with extinction.
Robin still in office
In addition, on the fringes of the feathered competition, there was a second race among bird fans. Sometimes even among people who don’t care too much about birds. For some, if you were honest, it was no longer about peeping or cooing, but about the money and the party that beckoned the most successful election campaign teams.
A football podcast activated its following, which was spread all over the republic, in order to catapult the black-necked grebe upwards. The response was huge, the team was ahead at the end of the preliminary round – only the black-necked grebe himself did not make it into the top ten. The football fans negotiated for months in order to be invited to the barbecue, without resounding success. But their campaign was still pretty funny. More effective worked the following of a famous writer, who stimulated the vote for the golden plover on Twitter. After all, the bird took seventh place.
The robin had the beak in front last year. Who will be his successor as champion? The fluke with his red-speckled chest and his demand “More hedges to hide”? The group-dynamic tree sparrow chirping: “Without woods, without me”? Our neighbor under the roof, the house martin, who claims “tenant protection for birds”? The wheatear who competes for barren landscapes with his encouragement “courage to fallow”? Or the hoopoe with the craziest hairstyle and the sensible motto “Poison is not a solution”?
It will definitely be exciting. If you don’t get completely confused by the fact that the bird of the year 2022 will actually be voted for now (yes, twenty-two), you will find the punk hoopoe and the domestic swallow at the top halfway through the vote. 85,000 people had voted by then. The famous writer is not campaigning for any of the birds again this year. But there are plenty of campaign teams again. They are called “Our God of Love, the Hoopoe”, “Place for the Sparrow”, “The bloody Linnet”, “Swallows belong in the air and not on the football field” or “FMÖL – For more barren landscapes”. However, yesterday’s number one among the supporters was again: the football podcast. This time he has chosen the bloodlines. It’s not meant to be a threat.
Votes will be held until November 18th. Nabu intends to announce the result on the same day. Who has not yet participated in the vote: vogeldesjahres.de is the landing place for the votes.
