There’s an election coming, but the candidates are a little different from the norm. For while it will feature both left and right wings, those vying for your votes are looking for a perch on a tree rather than a seat in the House of Commons. Matt Westcott reports

WE have a national anthem, a national flag and a national pastime, but until now Britain has never had an official national bird.

Back in the 1960s the robin was chosen as the nation’s favourite avian resident, but that was the view of a select few people and not the country as a whole.

Now, however, we are all being given our chance to say just which is our favourite feathered friend.

Championed by David Lindo, otherwise known as TV’s The Urban Birder, voters can choose from a shortlist of 60 birds, featuring everything from mute swans, to mallards to the waxwing and the wren.

People can vote for their favourite six birds and, after voting closes on November 30, six will go forward to the finals in January with the final vote running alongside that of the General Election, culminating in May.

“Unbelievably, Britain has never had an official national bird, hence this vote.

“The robin was voted Britain’s favourite bird back in the sixties and it was not even a public vote,” says David.

“It was a lot to do with the perceptions people had then about robins – the gardener’s friend and all round chirpy character.

“Since then there has been a lot of bad press about the robin, particularly about its highly pugnacious nature.

“Furthermore, it has now been found that we receive a lot of migrant continental robins during the winter and some of our British birds head south to warmer climes.”

In the early 1960s, species like the turtle dove, nightingale and cuckoo were far more numerous than today and were more well-known.

“Nowadays, there must only be a very small percentage of the general public who have actually seen, let alone heard, any of those species,” says David.

“Also numerically, there are less individual birds around today than back in the sixties. Whilst some species have decreased to perilously low numbers there are few species that are around in greater numbers than back then.

“The most obvious is the ring-necked parakeet that was practically unknown when the robin was being voted as Britain’s favourite bird.”

While the vote is fun, David says there is a serious side to it.

“An element of this vote is about highlighting the plight of several species in particular and getting people to think about Britain’s birdlife and its conservation,” he says. “Species like the hen harrier, for example, are in serious trouble, being all but extinct in England as a breeding bird, and others, like the turtle dove, are in steep decline.”

There are several geographical splits in the voting developing. “For instance, the red grouse is clocking up a lot of its votes from Northern England and Scotland whereas the pheasant appears to have many fans in the South,” David says.

“As expected, the red grouse is doing well in the North-East and North Yorkshire. The cuckoo, gannet and curlew are also high fliers in the region.”

When voting people should think about choosing a bird that best represents all that Britain stands for and not just for their favourite bird, says David.

“Voting for the national bird is about the voter making a choice based on his or her personal views on what Britishness means,” he says.

“Voting for a favourite bird is more of an emotional decision.

“What bird would be my choice as Britain’s national bird? Wouldn’t you like to know....”

To take part in the vote and stand a chance of winning one of several prizes visit votenationalbird.com To read more about David Lindo visit his website at theurbanbirder.com