NZ's Seabird of the Year named

A New Zealand Fairy Tern at Pakiri Beach. File photo / NZ Herald

After three weeks of close competition, the fairy tern has won the New Zealand Seabird of the Year poll, beating out second place getter, the Fiji petrel.

Forest and Bird have run the Bird of the Year poll since 2005, but this year the poll only included seabirds to highlight their importance and the significant threat to them.

For the last three weeks, campaign managers created posters, videos and blogs in support of their birds.

The fairy tern won this year's competition with 1882 votes. Coming in a close second was the Fiji petrel, with 1801 votes.

Both species were out in front over the course of the competition, before a late surge saw the fairy tern come out on top.

The fairy tern's win was great news for the species and the people who worked so hard to protect it, the bird's campaign co-manager Wade Doak said.

Mr Doak, who is also an author and conservationist, said the dwindling numbers of fairy terns were disproportionate to their popularity.

"However, the upside is that there are plenty of people who are prepared to go to great lengths to save the fairy tern.

"The courage and devotion of the public to saving these birds is incredible. Which is fortunate, because it's entirely up to us as to whether the birds will survive," he said.

Fiji petrel campaign manager Steve Cranwell said the support of Fijians, and Fijians at heart, had exceeded all expectations.

Forest and Bird's other projects to protect seabirds include mapping habitat areas that are globally important to seabirds, providing the fairy tern with new predator-free habitats, and campaigning for increased predator control with aerial 1080 poison drops.

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Five things about the fairy tern:

- The average lifespan of the fairy tern is less than 10 years. However, two birds were known to have survived to age 19.

- As of 2012, there were less than 40 fairy terns left.

- There are only between 8 to 10 breeding pairs of the birds left.

- Females source food for their chicks and for themselves but rarely, if ever, for the male.

- Their nests are found only on four North Auckland beaches.

(Source: www.fairytern.org.nz)