Top bird: Now let’s save it

By Hamish MacLean

The hoiho has for the second time in five years taken Bird of the Year honours, receiving more votes in this year’s Forest & Bird poll than there are hoiho on the planet.

Despite the bird’s success among voters, on the mainland numbers of the endemic penguin continue to plunge and conservationists say it is time to take action.

Hoiho, also known as the yellow-eyed penguin, became the first seabird to win Bird of the Year in 2019, when there were about 190 breeding pairs on the southeast coast of the South Island and Stewart Island, Dunedin Wildlife Hospital Trust manager Jordana Whyte said.

It secured top spot in Bird of the Year 2024 with 6328 votes and now there were only about 130 breeding pairs left on the mainland, Ms Whyte said.

A yellow-eyed penguin, named Bird of the Year 2024, receives care at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital yesterday. PHOTO: GERARD O’BRIEN

"If that number of breeding pairs is shrinking then the ability for the species to sustain itself is limited," she said.

"And if we want to continue having hoiho on the mainland, where we can actually see them, then we need to be taking action now."

Hoiho campaign manager Tūhura Otago Museum and Wild Dunedin marketing manager Charlie Buchan said the bird whose name means "noise shouter" in te reo Maori was an easy sell when seeking support in the city.

Mr Buchan said Bird of the Year "purists" were arguing for the need to highlight a bird that had yet to win the competition, "but the reason we got behind it [the hoiho] is because the numbers are going down quite dramatically".

Second-place-getter was the Chatham Island black robin. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

"It kind of symbolises Dunedin as well — a bit shy and timid, but we punch well above our weight," he said.

Three Dunedin organisations were leading the charge in the fight to save the penguins: the Wildlife Hospital, the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust, and the Otago Peninsula Environmental Restoration Alliance (Opera), he said.

And though they "probably wouldn’t say this", organisations focused on hoiho were often overlooked by government funders in favour of other species.

"We really wanted to rally the city — the museum really wanted to be a voice to highlight all the work that all those organisations are doing when they’re probably a little bit more humble in their approach.

Third-place-getter was the kākāpō. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

"We wanted to shout their names from the rooftop."

Forest & Bird Otago-Southland regional conservation manager Chelsea McGaw said the win was a good chance to highlight the importance of marine protected areas off Dunedin’s coast.

The last breeding-aged female hoiho from Sandfly Bay died in a setnet off Otago Peninsula in June.

At the time it was one of four hoiho caught by inshore trawlers since on-board cameras on commercial fishing vessels were introduced on October 31 last year.