Hoiho swims away with bird of year title

Atereano Mateariki Nicola Toki | Hoiho swims away with bird of year title

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The hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin has swum away with Forest & Bird’s 2024 Bird of the Year award.

Its 6,328 votes put it almost 1000 ahead of the karure or Chatham Islands black robin, with the kākāpō, the only other double winner, coming third with 4548 votes.

This will be the bird’s second Bird of the Year award, previously winning in 2019.

Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki says it’s one of the world’s rarest penguins, being found only around the Otago/Southland coast and Rakiura Stewart Island.

Its population is declining rapidly because of predators and changes in its environment.

“So these guys, when they’re nesting on the mainland, their chicks are vulnerable to predators like stoats. They also have to travel further to find their fish because climate change is moving around their food source so they may have to travel further kilometres offshore and then come back to feed their chicks. It’s like the oil light blinking furiously on your dashboard. It’s a really important reminder for all of us responsible for all of those various ways the hoiho live to come together and come up with some good solutions,” Ms Toki says.

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