Thursday 11 June 2015

Electing a national bird: the result

The result of the vote to elect an "official" national bird for the UK (see earlier post) was announced during BBC1's Springwatch Unsprung on 10 June 2015. The Robin was an easy winner, with more than a third of the vote. 

A total of 224,438 people voted for their favourite bird from the short list of 10 species on offer. The voting was as follows:
  1. Robin — 75,623 (33.7%)
  2. Barn Owl — 26,191 (11.7%)
  3. Blackbird — 25,369 (11.3%)
  4. Wren — 19,609 (8.7%)
  5. Red Kite — 14,057 (6.2%)
  6. Kingfisher — 13,922 (6.2%)
  7. Mute Swan — 13,480 (6.0%)
  8. Blue Tit — 13,123 (5.8%)
  9. Hen Harrier — 12,390 (5.5%)
  10. Puffin — 10,674 (4.8%).
Despite having previously claimed that the ballot would produce an "official" national bird,  the instigator of the vote, David Lindo (who favoured the Blackbird himself), now seems to accept that there is nothing official about the outcome. He announced his hope that the government will agree to recognise the Robin as the official national bird.