Kiwi(Saver): why it’s not National's bird of the century

The pūteketeke Australasian crested grebe has won Bird of the Century 2023. (Image: Getty)

Wed, 29 Nov 2023

Everybody’s heard about the bird.The pūteketeke is now the Taylor Swift of global avian celebrities, eclipsing even the iconic kiwi in what was, in the end, a landslide victory in the bird-of-the-century election. Once US late-night TV talk-show host John Oliver got in behind the pūteketeke, nothing could save the kiwi, which scratched up a measly 12,904 votes in second place against the winning tally of 290,374.National wasn’t quite a bird-of-the-century level in capturing 1,085,016 party votes out of a total of 2,850,527 cast...

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