We’re Making the 2026 Bird of the Year!

Every year, Forest & Bird’s Bird of the Year campaign gets Aotearoa talking about our native birds — and for us, it’s also become one of our favourite design challenges of the year.

Once the winner is announced, we’ll have just seven days to design, prototype and launch our recycled plastic version of the winning bird.

From bird to recycled plastic

The challenge is to take the winning bird and figure out how to capture what makes it recognisable in a small, wearable design — while working with the materials we already have in the workshop.

Our starting materials will include 3D printer waste, ice cream container lids and other bits and pieces of recycled plastic we have collected along the way.

We’ll be sharing the process as we go, from the first sketches and ideas through to experimenting with materials, making prototypes and arriving at a final design we’re happy to put out into the world.

There will almost certainly be a few things that don’t work along the way. That’s part of the fun.

Who will it be?

Voting opens at 9am on Friday 4 September and closes at 5pm on Sunday 20 September.
You can vote for up to five native birds, and your votes will also contribute to the parties the birds are representing this year.

Then comes the big reveal:
Winner announced: Monday 21 September
Our winner design launches: Monday 28 September

We’ll be sharing plenty of behind-the-scenes product development along the way, so follow along on socials if you’d like to see how it all comes together.

And there’s more…

This isn’t just about making a fun new pair of earrings.

For every pair of Bird of the Year earrings we sell, $2 will go to Forest & Bird to support their conservation mahi.

We’re proud to support Forest & Bird and the work they do to protect New Zealand’s wildlife and wild places. It’s pretty special to be able to combine that with what we love doing — experimenting with recycled materials and finding new ways to turn waste into something people want to keep.

So… who is it going to be?

Vote for your favourite bird — it might just become our next recycled plastic earring design!

Past winners: 

2023 Bird of the Century Pūteketeke
2024 Bird of the Year Hoiho
2025 Bird of the Year Kārearea 

Check out our products that support F&B below: