In 1980, there were exactly five Chatham Island black robins left on Earth — and only one of them could lay eggs. This month, that same species won New Zealand's biggest wildlife popularity contest, with the country's most-ever homegrown voter turnout behind it.
- 5 black robins left in the world in 1980
- 1 fertile female among them, nicknamed Old Blue
- 350 adult black robins alive today
- 25,610 votes that won karure the 2026 Bird of the Year title
- 105,000 total votes cast — a record for the competition
The two birds that saved a species
By 1980, the Chatham Island black robin, known in Māori as karure, had been reduced to a single breeding pair on a remote island reserve: a female named Old Blue and a male named Old Yellow. Every black robin alive today descends from that one pair.
New Zealand's Wildlife Service — now the Department of Conservation — along with the local Chathams community, spent years intensively managing nests, sometimes fostering black robin eggs under other bird species to boost hatching rates. It worked. The population climbed slowly but steadily across two predator-free nature reserve islands, Mangere and Rangatira.
A landslide win, decades in the making
That recovery story resonated with voters. Karure topped this year's Bird of the Year competition, run by conservation group Forest & Bird, edging out the kākāpō and the kārearea (New Zealand falcon) for the title.
Turnout set a record too: roughly 1 in every 50 New Zealanders voted, and for the first time since 2023, the large majority of votes — 88% — came from inside the country rather than overseas.
"New Zealanders have really shown up for nature... Roughly 1 in every 50 Kiwis voted in Bird of the Year 2026." — Rebecca Hatch, Group Manager, Forest & Bird
Why the win comes with a catch
The celebration carries a practical urgency. Karure's current habitat on Mangere and Rangatira islands is now nearly full, with every suitable territory occupied — meaning the population can't grow further without new land. Conservationists at the Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust are now working to establish a third population on nearby Pitt Island, which would also benefit roughly 20% of New Zealand's other threatened native bird species that share similar habitat.
Forest & Bird notes that eight of this year's top 10 finishers, karure included, are still classified as being in serious trouble — a reminder that Bird of the Year isn't just a mascot contest but a yearly gut-check on how the country's native species are actually doing.
For a bird that came within a single generation of blinking out entirely, going from two known survivors to a national mascot is itself the message. As Forest & Bird put it in announcing the result: karure can't vote for its own future, but the humans sharing its islands just did.
A finish line eight species deep
Karure's win also doubled as a scoreboard for how New Zealand's native birds are faring more broadly. Eight of this year's top 10 finishers — including kakapo, kea, and the yellow-eyed penguin — remain officially classified as threatened or in serious trouble, a pattern Forest & Bird says surprised many first-time voters who assumed the country's wildlife was doing fine.
That's part of why the competition has leaned into playful, election-style branding in recent years, complete with campaign managers, party alliances, and pop-up voting booths at schools and public events. Organizers credit that format with pulling in new, younger voters who might never have encountered a straightforward species-recovery story otherwise — and with keeping the underlying conservation message from getting lost in the memes.
The next milestone for karure isn't a vote count but a habitat one: securing predator-free space on Pitt Island so the population isn't capped by how many nesting territories two small reserves can hold. Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust volunteers, some from families involved in the original 1980s recovery effort, are already working on removing feral cats from the island as a first step.
