It’s BOTY time again in New Zealand, and you will be able to vote for the Endangered Northern Royal Albatross!

This year it’s the Northern Royal Albatross asking for your vote

It’s Bird of the Year (BOTY, Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau in Te Reo Māori) time again in New Zealand.  For the 22nd year since inauguration in 2005, New Zealanders, and the rest of the world, are invited to choose their favourite bird that occurs in New Zealand.  A total of 75 birds is in the mix this year.

Āwheo, the Royal Cam 2025/26 Northern Royal Albatross chick, artwork by Gill Winter, after photographs by Sharon Dunne and Cindy Giesle

Three of them are ACAP-listed species, the Endangered Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi, the Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni and the Endangered Westland Petrel P. westlandica.  Three other procellariforms are on the list, including the Endangered Hutton’s Shearwater Puffinus huttoni, a species regularly featured in ACAP Latest News.

Libby Manning, BOTY-NZ2026 Campaign Manager for the Northern Royal Albatross, received the Michelle McCormack Award in June this year

As in previous years, “champions” are being appointed to encourage votes for their favourite bird. The Royal Albatross Centre has taken the lead for the Northern Royal Albatross, with Libby Manning, an award-winning guide and educator at the centre, as Campaign Manager.  Libby has written to ACAP Latest News: “Bird of the Year is an opportunity for people to back their favourite native New Zealand birds.  Voters get to pick from five native species, and while there is no official prize for the winner the competition generally raises quite a lot of media and awareness.  Albatross have never won Bird of the Year before, and this year the Northern Royal Albatross is debuting, replacing the Antipodean Albatross.  The competition is open to anybody with a valid email address, and we are hoping to get seabird lovers across the world behind our campaign to raise awareness for albatross ecology, threats, and conservation.”

The six “parties”

This year the candidates have been grouped into six categories or “parties” - Tree Birds, Sea Birds, Shore Birds, Floor Birds, Shy Birds, and High Birds.  A vote for each bird will also count as a vote towards their wider party. Libby adds: “So alongside campaigning for albatross[es] we will also be encouraging people to vote for an 'all sea bird' candidate list”.

No procellariiform has ever been made New Zealand’s BOTY, and only two species of seabirds have made the top step, the Yellow-eyed Penguin Megadyptes antipodes twice (click here).

Campaigning has already started, with voting taking place from Friday 4 September to Sunday 20 September.

With thanks to Libby Manning.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 11 August 2026