Photographers from around the world recently submitted 20,000-odd images of bird species to the Bird Photographer of the Year contest. The showcase captures the diversity of the class Aves, as well as the dramatically different habitats the animals occupy and the ecological niches they inhabit.
(Un?)fortunately for you, this slideshow is not 20,000 pages long. But here’s the cream of the crop from those submissions: 27 award-winning images of the bevy of birds on our planet.
A Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis) perches on a branch in upstate New York’s Adirondack Park. This photo was the bronze award winner in the Best Portrait category.
An adult great grey owl (Strix nebulosa) hands off prey to its juvenile. This image was the bronze award winner in the Bird Behavior category.
Spotted in Florida, this nighthawk took the bronze award for the Birds in Flight category.
The white-throated dipper appears to float on the rushing waters of Finland’s Kitka River in this bronze award winner in the Birds in the Environment category.
Another black-and-white shot from the competition features two Australasian darters stretching out their wings at the base of two gnarled dead trees. This image was the bronze award winner for the Black and White category.
You’d be forgiven for looking twice at this image just to figure out what’s going on. In the shot, a crested caracara stretches its head all the way back to look behind its body at the photographer. This image was the bronze award winner in the Comedy Bird Photo category.
In this photo, a dead Peregrine flacon is held by a researcher at a rescue center in Livorno, Italy. A poacher killed the bird, and X-rays of the animal (seen in background) reveal lead shot in its body. This image was the bronze award winner in the Conservation (Single Image) category.
A stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) perches in the ajar doorway of an abandoned farmhouse. Note the hand of the painted woman in the image, which almost looks to hold the bird. This photo won the bronze award in the Urban Birds category.
The gold award winner for the 11 and Under category captures the Verditer flycatcher (Eumyias thalassinus) in all its bluish-green glory.
Two terns (the tops of their heads, at least) are captured in this shot taken on a Swedish inlet. The image is the gold award winner in the competition’s 12-14-Year-Old category.
A striking shot of a blackbird set against a bright orange moon was this year’s Young Photographer of the Year winner. The image is also the gold award winner in the 15-17-Year-Old category.
The gold award winner in the Best Portrait category is this captiving image of a glistening-green tanager (Chlorochrysa phoenicotis) in a large leaf in the Ecuadorian rainforest.
The winner of the gold award in the Bird Behavior category, and this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year, captured this shot of a Peregrine falcon striking a brown pelican that ventured too close to its nest.
A sword-billed hummingbird in flight was the gold award-winning image for the Birds in Flight category.
A white and orange brambling appears to match its environment: a grey sky and a field of dead sunflowers. The sunflowers were killed off by flooding, and this brambling found a happy perch atop one of the fallen flowers. The shot was the gold award winner for the Birds in the Environment category.
The gold award winner in the Black and White category is this Robert McCloskey-esque shot of two ducks. The duck on the right is a juvenile, apparently intrigued by a morsel in its mother’s mouth.
A purple heron gobbles down a large carp in this shot taken in Italy’s Lake Chiusi. The image is the gold award winner in the Comedy Bird Photo category.
A hunter in Malta holds a legally-hunted European Turtle Dove in this gold award-winning image in the Conservation (Single Image) category. A spring hunting moratorium was in place in Malta between 2017 and 2022, but was lifted last year, exposing the doves to potential overhunting.
An owl in Helsinki ogles the stone angel on which it’s perched in this shot, which took home the gold award in the Urban Birds category.
Emperor penguins stare at their chick in this shot. The parents’ posture evokes a sense of security around their progeny, especially surrounded by the harsh (and in this image, blindingly white) backdrop of Antarctica.
A blue-footed booby towing a sardine won the silver award for Bird Behavior, in the only featured image showing a bird underwater.
In this image, six flamingos fly over an algal bloom in a Kenyan lake, earning the silver award for the Birds in Flight category. The bright pink flamingos contrast nicely with the deep green of the algae below.
A trio of emperor penguins look out across their harsh landscape. Antarctica can be -104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius), with gale-force winds. But in this moment, the sunny, snow-swept landscape appears serene.
A black-headed heron (Ardea melanocephala) stands on a palm tree in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve. This photo won the silver award in the black-and-white category.
A juvenile king penguin, characterized by its chunky brown feathers and shown on the right, is seen bothering an adult. The amusing shot took home the silver in the Comedy Bird Photo category.
In this shot, a southern boobook, the smallest owl species in Australia, is being examined for possible eye injuries. The image won the silver award in the Conservation (Single Image) category.
The silver award winner for the Urban Birds category is this image of migrating great cormorants, which flocked over the skyline of Shenzhen, China.