John Oliver is campaigning for the pūteketeke to win New Zealand's bird of the century contest
Click to viewIn 2005, the conservation group Forest & Bird started the Bird of the Year/Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau contest, an annual competition to raise awareness about New Zealand's native birds. Each nominated bird has a campaign manager (sometimes a celebrity or a business). In 2021, Adult Toy Megastore campaigned for the hihi bird, claiming that the male hihi has the largest testicles in the bird world and that the hihi "is the sex-positive polyamorous idol of the bird world the the biggest balls to boot!"
After learning that votes are not limited to Kiwi citizens and that Forest & Bird encourages anyone who is passionate about their favorite native bird to campaign, John Oliver decided to take up the pūteketeke. Some fun facts about this bird: both parents incubate the eggs and tend to the chicks, even carrying them on their backs in the water. They also eat hundreds of their own feathers to protect their stomachs and then vomit a ball of feathers and fish bones. John's team has put up billboards and ads in Mumbai, Tokyo, London, Paris, Ipanema Beach, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin (the ad in London says "help us crown a real king").
Check out all of this year's bird candidates here! You can hear their little birdie noises if you click on "hear my song."
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