More than 18,000 people took part in the poll. The kingfisher secured 30.47% of the vote, just 53 votes ahead of the dipper in second place, which finished on 30.19%.

BirdLife Switzerland once again invited the public to choose the 'Bird of the Year', looking for a species to champion near-natural waterways. The kingfisher and dipper topped the poll, followed by the grey wagtail (16.37%), the little ringed plover (12.57%) and the sand martin (10.40%).

BirdLife estimates there are around 400 to 500 breeding pairs of kingfishers in Switzerland, a number that has seen a slight recovery in recent years. The species remains rare and is listed as threatened due to its small population.

Harsh winters can sharply reduce numbers if large stretches of water freeze over, cutting the birds off from their food. But the biggest threat remains the loss of natural habitats, the organisation added.

To help the kingfisher thrive, BirdLife is focusing on river restoration projects and creating new nesting sites. These include building artificial breeding walls and clearing suitable steep banks. The organisation is active in several regions, including the nature centres at La Sauge (canton Vaud), Klingnauer Stausee (canton Aargau) and Neeracherried (canton Zurich).

Translated from German with DeepL/sp

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at ....

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiati

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ....