Swift parrot named 2023 Australian bird of the year winner!
The fourth edition of the poll – the previous polls took place in 2017, 2019, 2021 – took flight on Monday 25 September with a lineup of 50 Australian native birds, and came to roost on Friday 6 October.
As a reminder, the 2023 voting system was the same as in 2021. The bottom five birds were eliminated at the end of each weekday, with everyone able to vote again in the next round each day.
Voting went dark on Thursday 5 October for the final 10 birds and closed at midnight. All votes from the early rounds were discarded before the final count. The endangered swift parrot received the most votes in a simple poll of the final 10 on Thursday 5 October. It was announced the winner on Friday 6 October.
Update, 26 September 2023: Due to a bug with our polling system, knocked-out birds from day one were still available for voting on the morning of day two.
Update, 30 September 2023: The article text was changed to clarify that round five ran from Friday to Sunday.
Update, 6 October 2023: The headline, article and interactive were updated to reflect the fact the poll was concluded and the swift parrot had won.