Icelandic songbird wins Eurovision contest
Tallinn, Estonia - A Golden Plover from Iceland was chosen on Friday as the winner of the first Eurovision Bird Song Contest - modeled after its counterpart for humans to be held in Estonia the following day.
The winner was revealed at a news conference at the Tallinn Zoo, near the venue for the better known contest featuring singers from 24 nations, mostly in Europe.
The 21 competing birds, including a Slovenian red-breasted Flycatcher and Maltese Shearwater, didn't participate live, but sang - sometimes squawked, crowed or clucked - in 30-second recordings on the Eurovision Bird Song website.
The birds, nominated by ornithological societies, had to be native to a participating country or migrate through it to qualify.
The Golden Plover, or Pluvialis apricaria by its Latin name, is a brownish, yellow-tinged bird that nests in Iceland's lowlands.
Its call is regarded as a harbinger of spring on the North Atlantic island and other Nordic nations.
"It doesn't necessarily have a beautiful voice. It's got more of a fluty call than a song," said a contest organiser, Robert Oetjen. "But it's interesting, and so lots of people voted for it."
An estimated 30 000 people visited the site over the past four weeks to listen to the MP3 audio files of the bird songs and rate them from 1-5.
The Golden Plover received the highest average rating, a 3.6, to take the title.
Second place went to a Belgian Bluethroat and a Belarusian Aquitic Warbler came in last.
A separate panel of professional bird watchers named Estonia's entrant, a Thrush Nightingale, as its favourite.
The competition was organised by Estonia's Nature Fund and Ornithological Society, which said its goal was to raise awareness about threats to European birds.
A local communications firm, Tele2, paid the $20,000 (about R200 000) bill.
Top prize was a small trophy and "national honour," said contest spokesperson Kristjan Adjoaan. He said it wasn't yet clear whether the contest would be held next year.
The 47th Eurovision Song Contest, which helped launch the career of Swedish group ABBA when they won in 1974, was being held in Tallinn on Saturday.
The Bird Song Contest was not formally sanctioned by the Eurovision Song Contest - though organizers of that annual extravaganza gave their tacit approval and helped with publicity.
- Sapa-AP