Forest & Bird

Happy New Year, ngā mihi o te tau hou!   2026 will be a big year. We’re excited to use every opportunity we can to amplify nature’s voice. Aroha nui to you and your loved ones as we welcome in a new year 🥳  📸: Original photo, William Harland

🦅✨ Speed-swoop into style and snag a pair of kārearea earrings by Remix Plastic – designed to celebrate the fierce and fabulous 2025 Bird of the Year. $2 from every pair goes directly to support vital conservation mahi, so you’re not just looking good, you’re doing good too🎉https://remixplastic.com/

And now... 🏅A few words from our winner🏅 #BOTY2025 #BirdoftheYear2025 #BirdoftheYear #NZBirdoftheYear @thomassainsbury

Confused by all the talk of vote validation? 🗳️We can't let spam-bots decide who gets the crown! 🤖 So we can only count verified votes. Once you've submitted your picks, you're just a click away from verification. ✅ #BOTY2025 #BirdoftheYear2025 #BirdoftheYear #NZBirdoftheYear

Need some help choosing which birds to vote for in the 20th Bird of the Year? Download our handy flowchart. Voting opens Monday! 👉https://f.mtr.cool/euvawqrgje #BOTY2025 #BirdoftheYear2025 #BirdoftheYear

🧱🐦 Missed out on a bird brick kit? Here’s your second chance! 49 sets of each bird (pīwakawaka, kākāpō, tūī and pekapeka) will be available at the Wellington Brick Show along with a chance to meet their creator @bricks.by.mike_ 📅 13 September 📍 Walter Nash Centre, Lower Hutt #BOTY2025

Wear your Bird of the Year vote as eco-friendly jewellery. ✨  Turning waste into treasure, Remix Plastic is donating $2 from select pairs of their stunning bird earrings, studs, and pins – including pūteketeke and hoiho – to support our conservation mahi.  👉 https://remixplastic.com #BOTY2025

Critter of the Week fans – new merch has landed! $5 from every purchase goes to supporting conservation heroes. 👉 https://joyya.com/en-nz/collections/critter-of-the-week

🌿🌿🌿 Three easy ways to start conservation for Te Wiki Tiaki Ao Tūroa, Conservation Week, 1 to 7 September 2025. 1. Pick up rubbish 2. Support pest control 3. Vote nature 🐦Let’s make conservation part of everyday life. We’d love to hear your ideas for making it more accessible 💚

🦜 Celebrate 20 years of Bird of the Year and take home your own piece of history with our limited-edition brick-built model, developed by @bricks.by.mike_ ! Only 200 are available, so get in fast before they waddle away!!  https://f.mtr.cool/delugiizam

🔥 These past Bird of the Year winners are looking for a match! From viral heartthrobs to underdog glow-ups, these plucky singles know how to ruffle feathers and steal hearts 🐦💔  👉 Keen to campaign? They’re waiting for you.  https://f.mtr.cool/xsglwvyqlx

Some birds have flocks of fans ... these guys are still looking for “the One”.  Swipe right on these cuties before someone else snaps them up 💘  Become a campaign manager: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/apply-be-bird-year-2025-campaign-manager

Heal the Hauraki - Episode 2: “Tangata” IS OUT NOW 💙 🌊 Around the Hauraki Gulf our ocean communities are struggling – habitat loss means biodiversity is out of balance & ecosystems are failing. But a groundswell is rising – of courage, care, and collective hope🩵 👇 Watch now youtu.be/t9eppCixWfs?...

“It’s the trawling that’s turned thriving [ocean] ecosystems into lifeless mud.” We're standing with the Hauraki Gulf Alliance on the Rainbow Warrior, calling for a complete ban on bottom trawling in Tīkapa Moana. It's time to protect our marine life & end this destructive practice once and for all.

A loaf-sized shrimp? The supergiant amphipod, or Alicella gigantea, lives 7 km below the ocean’s surface and is a monster compared to other shrimp. The extreme pressure at the depth they live in is theorised to have led to their gigantism, just like the colossal squid 🦑 📸 Alan Jamieson (CC-BY-SA)

Forest & Bird’s Nicola Toki joins broadcaster John Cowan on NewstalkZM’s Real Life at 7.30 tonight to talk about what shaped her passion for nature, why many people don’t realise the scale of our biodiversity crisis, and how we can turn it around.  https://f.mtr.cool/nevovblnlc

The battle of the birds is BACK! 🐦✨  Bird of the Year returns this September.  🗓️ Voting will open Monday 15 September  🗓️ Voting will close Sunday 28 September  You can sign up now to become a campaign manager. 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/xjbevgkqfr

Meet Philophthalmus attenuatus, the seagull eye parasite you never knew existed (and probably wish you still didn’t). Listen to Richard talking to Jesse on RNZ for today's #CritterOfTheWeek. 📸 Image by flaxington www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Denniston might look rugged and empty from a distance – but get down low and you’ll discover a tapestry of rare mosses, alpine daisies, sundews 🌱🦎 💚 Add your observations or browse the wild wonders already spotted: 👉 inaturalist.nz/projects/cel... #CelebratingDenniston #WarOnNature

📣 Want to take action for climate & nature this week? Our friends at @350nz.bsky.social are organising protests around the country calling on ANZ to cut ties with coal giant Bathurst Resources – the company behind plans to dig up the wild and irreplaceable Denniston Plateau. ❌⛏️🌿 350.org.nz/coal/

Over the weekend, Forest & Bird gathered to celebrate the #Denniston Plateau and rally against a proposed fast-tracked open-cast coal mine. On RNZ, Kennedy Warne spoke of its rich biodiversity, the magic of the place and the threat that the proposed mine presents. www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Budget 2025 is a disaster for our environment. Conservation investment is MIA while 75% of native species face extinction. The Govt is gambling with $133B in natural assets and our economy. This is environmental neglect, not leadership. We demand better. www.forestandbird.org.nz/resources/no...

“What’s next?A sanctuary for stoats?” Forest & Bird calls out plans to turn Fiordland into a game park. When conservation funding faces a $1.5B shortfall, the prioritisation of hunting over biodiversity protection is deeply concerning: www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic... #WarOnNature #SaveConservationLand

Nzers ❤️ public conservation land, but DYK that… - there are different levels of protection?  - many types are at risk due to Government’s Fast-track development legislation? - the Government is trying to make it easier to sell off this public land?!   For more go to www.facebook.com/forestandbird

🤔 “Likely the most poorly known large mammal species of modern times” is how the spade-toothed whale, Mesoplodon traversii, is described 🐋 🎧 Forest & Bird’s Nicola Toki tells RNZ’s Jesse Mulligan what scientists DO know 🔍about this mysterious Critter of the Week www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

♻️ Circular in more ways than one! Introducing the new, limited-edition Re:band collection by Remix plastic – made from bird banding waste leftover from DOC mahi. Wearable in two ways and $2 from each piece goes to us! 👉 Grab yours at www.remixplastic.com 💚 Reduce waste – Look great – Do good 💚

🚨 Rat hunt at Tarapuruhi Bushy Park near Whanganui! 🐀 CE, Nicola Toki: “We’re throwing everything we have and everything we can at it.” 🥾 If you are physically fit & have got good backcountry skills and trapping experience – help our hunt for a rat & please volunteer: bushypark.nz/join-the-cau...

🎧“Coal belongs in the past. There is so much new technology and new and important and gentler ways of living from this point.” Listen to our CE Nicola Toki's interview on Radio Waatea about how the New Zealand government is promoting expanding coal mines. waateanews.com/2025/05/01/n...

Pīngao or golden sand sledge is a wonder of a #nzplant - naturally binding together #sanddunes for #climateresilient #coastlines 🏖️ Choose Nature-based Solutions - they work! 💯 www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/choose-nature-based-solutions #naturebasedsolutions #ClimateAction #nzconservation

Destroying the Denniston Plateau epitomises the worst of the Fast-track law – cutting environmental protections and public input to make it easier to dig up more of the dirtiest fossil fuel and destroy a biodiversity hotspot.🦎🦋🐌 We'll keep fighting against this. newsroom.co.nz/2025/04/20/p...