Bird of the Year debate: oystercatcher vs kakariki karaka

05:52 am on 11 November 2020

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With election day looming, the campaign for some of the birds are well and truly heating up, with some turning to Donald Trump for inspiration. Under the banner "the Orange Face You Can Trust", the team behind the Kakariki karaka or orange-fronted parakeet have taken to Twitter to declare victory and call for vote counting to cease. In response, the Variable Oystercatcher camp condemned what it dubbed "authoritarian strongman" tactics, and called for all the votes to be counted. Nathan Rarere hosted a debate between Newsroom political journalist Marc Daalder - team Oystercatcher - and Massey University ecology and environmental sciences lecturer Luis Ortiz-Catedral - team kakariki karaka.