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Bird of the Year acts as a welcome antidote to an ever more bleak news cycle, celebrating Australia's extraordinary and distinctive native wildlife. But, it's also a numbers game.

Taking past results as a indicator, more than 300,000 votes are expected to be cast over a nine-day period, beginning at 6am AEDT on 6 October, as people from across the globe select their favourite Australian bird species for 2025.

The victorious aviator (assuming it is a bird that flies – probable, but not guaranteed) will be honored alongside previous winners: the Australian magpie, the black-throated finch, the superb fairy-wren and 2023’s champion, the swift parrot.

Australia has about 850 native bird species. Nearly half are not found anywhere else on the planet. That total has been narrowed to 50 for this year’s voting, based in part on numerous reader nominations.

While you are considering how to vote, here are some other numbers to consider.

A growing number of bird species are not in a great way. The national authorities classifies 164 as threatened. According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, 11 birds have been added to the list since the previous bird of the year vote two years ago.

At least 22 species and subspecies have been pushed to extinction, mostly in the years after European colonisation.

Most pressingly, there are 18 bird species classified as severely threatened, placing them a single step from lost. They encompass some regular contenders: the regent honeyeater, the far eastern curlew and the swift and orange-bellied parrots. They may soon be joined by others, such as Baudin’s black cockatoo.

Hopefully that what to do to save them – and the approximately 2,000 other species and ecological communities considered at risk – will be at the centre of the government’s work to overhaul the national nature law in the coming months.

Why this matters, and what birds mean to people, has already been the focus of a series of introductory stories, photos, videos and artwork in recent weeks. There’s plenty more to come.

But, for now, the number to focus on is: one.

Each day, everyone has a single vote to assign to their preferred bird that remains in the competition.

At the end of each day, the five birds that garnered the least votes will be removed from the race. The final round of voting will occur on Tuesday the 14th, when just 10 birds will be left. That voting ends at 6am on Wednesday the 15th.

The winner will be announced in a live stream at midday the next day.

In the words of BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley – a key organizer behind bird of the year – the next week-and-a-bit will be a “happy celebration of the birds that save us” and a “rallying cry for us to work harder to save them”.

It should also be highly enjoyable. Now is the time to cast your vote.