New Zealand is holding its annual Bird of the Year competition and it's already gathered one hell of a controversy.
Countries all over the world like to set up cheeky public ballots to drum up support for local flora and fauna and New Zealand is no different.
However in the 2020 vote, one candidate has received support from an unlikely source.
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The hihi, also known as a stitchbird, has received a massive boost thanks to an endorsement from a sex toy shop.
The tiny yet beautiful bird is a small honeyeater-like animal, with males displaying a dark velvety cap and short white ear, a yellow band across the chest and a grey body. Females and juveniles are duller than males and lack the black head and yellow chest band.
Interestingly, the male hihi has been known to have 'unusually large testicles' that 'produce a large amount of sperm'.
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Adult Toy Megastore released a statement saying: "We are proud to endorse the hihi for bird of the year 2020. Hihi lead the sex positivity movement among songbirds and for that we salute them and say to you: VOTE HIHI.
"Male and female hihi practice consensual polyamory [the practice of intimate relationships with more than one partner, with the informed consent of all partners] which is rare.
"Male hihi have testicles four times larger than they should be making them, by size, the largest testicles on a bird in the world!... How could you not vote for them?"
It's kind of bizarre that a sex toy store would lend their voice to such a campaign, but that's not the only scandal to erupt from the 2020 Bird of the Year competition. The people monitoring the thousands of votes that are pouring in from all over the place noticed one bird was getting a hell of a lot of votes.
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After doing some digging, they discovered that more than 1,500 votes came from the same IP address.
Laura Keown, the spokesperson for Bird of the Year, said in a statement: "It's lucky we spotted this little kiwi trying to sneak in an extra 1,500 votes under the cover of darkness!
"But they'll have to play by the rules like all of the other birds to win the competition."
The vote will end this Sunday and there is no doubt that it will be one hell of a big result when the winner is declared.
Featured Image Credit: Stefan Marks (Flickr)