The black robin, once the world\u2019s rarest bird before an extraordinary conservation project brought it back from brink of extinction, has been crowned New Zealand\u2019s bird of the year, after record voter turnout.<\/p>\n
The tiny bird is found only in the Chatham Islands, 800km east of mainland New Zealand. Called kakaruia in M\u0101ori and karure in Morirori \u2013 the language indigenous to the Chathams \u2013 the birds are also fondly known as the \u201cgoth\u201d of New Zealand\u2019s bird world, for its striking black plumage, black eyes and a little pointy black beak.<\/p>\n
Habitat loss and introduced pests devastated its population, and by the 1970s there were five birds left. Just one breeding pair remained: Old Blue, the matriarch, and Old Yellow. A breeding programme that pioneered using other species<\/a> to foster parent the robins\u2019 eggs proved a success, and its numbers have steadily climbed to 350 adult birds, although it is still classed as \u201cthreatened\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are really cute,\u201d said Jess Mackenzie, spokesperson for the Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust, adding that the black robin has been in the top five birds for the past few years but never clinched a win.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bird that New Zealanders definitely love and know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Despite the name, the black robin is not in the same family as overseas robins and is a distinct species. In the Chathams, they live in lowland coastal forest on two restricted, pest-free nature reserves.<\/p>\n While a conservation success story, the black robin is not \u201csaved yet\u201d, Mackenzie said. Habitat on their islands is nearly at capacity, and a third pest-free island is needed.<\/p>\n A Chatham Island black robin collects material to build a nest. Photograph: Leon Berard<\/p>\n The bird of the year competition \u2013 run by conservation group Forest and Bird \u2013 was launched 20 years ago to raise awareness about the plight of New Zealand\u2019s native birds, many of which are threatened, on the brink of extinction or already extinct due to the introduction of pests, human activity and declining habitats.<\/p>\n The 2026 competition attracted a record 105,000 votes. About 88% of the votes were cast from New Zealand.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s heaviest parrot, the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d<\/a>, came second and the 2025 winner, the country\u2019s only falcon, the k\u0101rearea<\/a>, finished third.<\/p>\n Over the years, the contest has been subject to scandal, from crowning a bat the winner<\/a> in 2021, to accusations of Russian interference<\/a> in 2019, and claims Australians attempted to rig the contest in favour of the shag <\/a>in 2018.<\/p>\n In 2023, British-American comedian and talkshow host John Oliver<\/a> ran a global campaign<\/a> for the threatened p\u016bteketeke, which was then crowned the winner that year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The black robin, once the world\u2019s rarest bird before an extraordinary conservation project brought it back from brink…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-607025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}