The recent media publicity for the Bird of the Year vote has contrasted with the relatively small amount of interest on this chatline, surprising given the serious challenge mounted by our own Gang-gang. In 1917 these
pages carried quite a few comments, leading me to revive a little graphic (below) from 2013 - the year which saw the SFW in central place on the podium. As has been pointed out, FWs and parrot species tend to split the vote, a result avoided by allowing
only one representative species on the ballot. That strategy has an uncanny resemblance to Alexei Novalny’s ‘Smart Voting’ strategy in the recent Russian elections. Perhaps one campaign has learnt from the other.
