TNB Night Owl–Drunken Pigeon is Named New Zealand Bird of the Year

Kererū sitting on a kawakawa branch. Photo by Pseudopanax.

It appears we at the News Blender are not the only ones who appreciate a good drunk bird story. In fact, the nation of New Zealand do as well, so much so they have named a drunken, rotund, clumsy pigeon–the Kereru–as its Bird of the Year.

The conservation group, Forest and Bird, run a yearly competition for the New Zealand Bird of the Year. This year’s winner is a pigeon who, at 50 centimeters long, is one of the few birds in New Zealand large and gluttonous enough to spread the seeds of many fruiting plants across the nation. Not only is the kereru good for the ecosystem, it’s known for it’s fancy and showy habit of flying in amazing acrobatic spectacle. Its most endearing quality, though, is its preference for rotting fruit, leaving the gluttonous birds to be so intoxicated they’ve been known to fall from trees in a stupor.

The kereru, endorsed by the country’s Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick, earned 5833 votes.  The second place winner, endorsed by comedian Stephen Fry, was the kakapo parrot.

The official announcement from Forest and Bird:

Question of the night–what is your favorite John Belushi movie?

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