Bird of the Year - Battle of the Youth Hubs | September 2025
BOTY 2025 - Battle of the Youth Hubs
Which birds are the Youth Leaders backing this year? Read on to see their top picks...perhaps they sway your own votes for Bird of the Year?
Don't forget to cast your votes for five incredible native birds at https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/
By Jasmine Starr
KORORĀ / Little Blue Penguin
Backed by the Taranaki Youth Hub
Beloved by bird fanatics everywhere, the kororā is a classic choice. Little bigger than a box of tissues, this fiercely protective penguin will face off predators twice their size. While mature kororā are a regal cobalt, their chicks are disgruntled little puffballs of grey. Their call, like a screaming, gargling housecat, can be heard on moonlit coastlines all around Aotearoa.
The kororā, waddling its way to a BOTY title. Credit: ‘Karen’ via Flickr, CC BY-SA 4.0.
TŪTURIWHATU / Banded Dotterel
Backed by Te Matau-a-Māui Hawkes Bay Youth Hub
Feathered in elegant stripes, the banded dotterel is the picture of elegance. With a chestnut- striped breast and a stomach white as snow, these birds are an easy favourite. Their chicks—two spotted cotton balls stuck on top of bird legs—are fiendishly adorable. You can see these avian Flash Gordons sprinting in bursts, long legs a blur, in braided riverbeds across the motu.
A banded dotterel, gloriously striped as always. Credit: Francesco Veronesi via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
TOROA / Antipodean Albatross
Backed by the Youth Campaigns Hub
An intensely photogenic albatross, the perennially grinning Toroa is a fantastic choice for BOTY. Able to travel at over 100 km/h, this speedy seafarer enjoys a 3-metre wingspan and gigantic webbed feet. Their calls, meant to attract a mate, range from screams to 'roars' to a metal washboard erupting in laughter. This questionable courtship can last several years. Toroa are found across the Auckland and Antipodean islands or soaring solo across the seas.
One glorious Toroa showing off its wingspan. Credit: Oscar Thomas via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
HIHI / Stitchbird
Backed by the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Youth Hub
A close living relation of the Huia, the hihi is a wide-eyed wattlebird weighing less than an average chicken egg. Hihi are fast-moving and difficult to find, despite having feathers flecked with a spellbinding mix of white and yellow. With a population decimated by introduced predators, Hihi are most common in sanctuaries like Zealandia or Tiritiri Matangi. With your help, the Hihi can hop, flap and twitch its way to victory.
A hihi. Look at its whiskers. It has whiskers. I’m in love. Credit: Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
PUKUNUI / Southern Dotterel
Backed by the Ōtepoti Dunedin Youth Hub
The southern dotterel is characterised by their gorgeous russet feathers, with a call described perfectly by “EEP!”. It’s also adept at standing around and looking suspicious. Due to predation and intense habitat loss, they now live in one small population on Rakiura/Stewart Island. With only 100-odd birds remaining, this bright-red beauty desperately needs our attention this BOTY.
Southern dotterels, true to form, standing around and looking suspicious. Credit: Bernard Spragg via Flickr, CC0 1.0
RURU / Morepork
Backed by the Ōtautahi Christchurch Youth Hub
Characterised by its haunting call, the oft-heard and rarely seen Ruru has a thick brow, lovely dappled feathers, and bright yellow eyes that stare directly through your soul. With fascinating feather structures, the ruru’s flight (and hunt!) is eerily silent. Its otherworldliness woven through Māori legend, the ruru can be heard prophesising your doom in woodlands all over Aotearoa.
A ruru, haunted by the depths of its otherworldly knowledge. Credit: JJ Harrison via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
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