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Photographers are often inspired to point their lenses at birds. With their colorful plumage, diverse shapes and sizes and endearing behaviors, these winged creatures can help photographers produce some truly stunning images.
The annual Bird Photographer of the Year competition highlights some of the best avian images, from graceful waterfowl to high-flying birds of prey—and many species in between. This year, the contest announced its results Monday night, revealing a suite of thought-provoking photographs.
Beyond spotlighting the beauty of birds, the images spread awareness of the conservation issues facing the creatures today, from human-caused pollution in their environments to the ever-present threat of crashing into windows.
Featuring both intriguing bird behavior and poignant reminders of their vulnerability, here’s a snapshot of some of this year’s winners and top finishers.
When Worlds Collide by Patricia Homonylo
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Patricia Homonylo was crowned this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year for her dramatic image, When Worlds Collide. Her work shows various species of migratory birds that died after colliding with glass windows and other reflective surfaces in Toronto. Homonylo is a Canadian conservation journalist who works with the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP), a nonprofit trying to protect birds from window collisions.
During the spring and fall migrations, volunteers with FLAP head out each morning to search for and save birds that have crashed into windows. The majority of the birds they find are already dead. Rather than leave them behind, the volunteers gather the bodies and arrange them in an “emotive and provocative display,” according to a statement. This annual tradition, known as “Bird Layout,” gives closure to the volunteers, honors the birds and raises public awareness about the issue.
Homonylo captured the winning image of the group’s 2022 display, which includes more than 4,000 birds. She beat out more than 23,000 images to win the contest’s grand prize of £3,500 (about $4,670). With the same photo, Homonylo also took gold in the contest’s conservation category.
She hopes her photograph inspires viewers to support organizations like FLAP and advocate for bird-friendly building practices, like putting special film on building windows to help prevent birds from crashing into them.
This year, the contest donated £5,000 (about $6,675) to Birds on the Brink, a United Kingdom-based charity that provides small grants to bird conservation projects across the globe.
“The mark of a good photograph is one that either demonstrates artistry or tells a story. The mark of an exceptional one is that it does both,” says Paul Sterry, a trustee for Birds on the Brink, in a statement. “This is just such a photograph, portraying a tragic and often overlooked aspect of man’s impact on the environment and an unintended consequence of our species’ high-rise aspirations, which turns out to be yet another devastating threat to wild birds.”
Perspective by Andrés Luis Domínguez Blanco
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Andrés Luis Domínguez Blanco was named this year’s Young Bird Photographer of the Year. Based in Spain, Blanco also won gold in the contest’s 12 to 14 years category for the same image, a wide-angle view of a Eurasian nuthatch (Sitta europaea) perched on a tree in southern Spain.
“An oak tree next to a river provides cover for species such as woodpeckers and nuthatches coming down to drink,” the young photographer says in a statement. “I was using a remote-control set-up, and I just had to wait. Since these species like to climb trunks, I thought about what their vision and perspective would be like.”
Playful Fledgling by Jack Zhi
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American photographer Jack Zhi, who was the 2023 Bird Photographer of the Year, took home silver in the bird behavior category for his photo of a curious peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) fledgling. In the image, the youngster soars through the air while trying to catch a butterfly in Southern California.
Zhi had been watching the peregrine falcon practice flying and hunting for more than a week when he captured this endearing moment. It was the first time he’d ever seen a fledgling peregrine falcon play with a butterfly.
“He was not good enough to catch live birds in the air yet, so he took baby steps by chasing a fluttering butterfly,” says Zhi in a statement. “He was certainly much faster than the butterfly and also nimble enough to keep up with it. Look at the concentration! He was successful on occasion, caught the butterfly, played with it for a second, then released it.”
A Modern Dancer by Nadia Haq
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Birds can be goofy—and when photographers are lucky, they happen to be nearby to capture these brief moments of levity. That was the case for American photographer Nadia Haq, who was visiting Brown Bluff, Antarctica, with her husband and her 10-year-old son when she spotted a group of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) on the sea ice. For the image, Haq won gold in the comedy bird photo category.
“As we slowly approached them, they started to toboggan on the ice, and I captured one of them sliding as if performing a modern dance move,” she says in a statement.
Treacherous Journey by Grzegorz Długosz
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Grzegorz Długosz, a photographer in Poland, took gold in this year’s urban birds category. His winning shot shows volunteers helping a mother goosander (Mergus merganser) and her chicks safely cross a road in Warsaw.
Every year, the birds breed in a park not far from the Vistula River. But eventually, the young families must leave the park and head for the river, where they find food and safety.
“They make the journey through a series of underground passages and over a six-lane highway,” Długosz says in a statement. “Each year, a group of volunteers help them cross this deadly road by stopping the traffic.”
Postmortem by Joshua Galicki
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Northern gannet (Morus bassanus) nest on rocky cliffs near the sea. They primarily build their nests from mud, seaweed, excrement and feathers, but they’re also known to incorporate “odd objects,” according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Unfortunately, this tendency sometimes leads to their demise, as was the case in the scene captured by American photographer Joshua Galicki on Scotland’s Isle of Noss. Galicki won bronze in the conservation category for the image, which shows a dead northern gannet hanging from a fishing line.
“This is yet another threat to their numbers as they try to raise their offspring successfully,” he says in a statement. “It is important to note that this same colony of birds was decimated the previous year due to avian flu. I took this image as a reminder of an additional obstacle we put in the way of this species, which is compounded with other challenges, including disease and climate change.”
Helmetshrikes Preparing to Sleep by Gary Collyer
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Photographer Gary Collyer of the United Kingdom snapped this humorous shot while on safari at Sabi Sands Nature Reserve in South Africa. As his group returned to camp, they heard some unusual sounds and stopped to have a look.
“Then we heard chattering and fluttering high above us,” he says in a statement. “When illuminated with the lamp on the vehicle, we saw these helmetshrikes huddling together against a night that was starting to turn colder.”
His image of the tightly packed group of white-crested helmetshrikes (Prionops plumatus)—with some birds tipped upside-down—won bronze in the comedy bird photo category.
Hippo Impression by David Stowe
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Bird or hippo? You can be the judge after admiring this photograph by David Stowe, a photographer based in Australia.
Standing on a raised platform above a wetland, Stowe captured the moment a hoary-headed grebe (Poliocephalus poliocephalus) disappeared beneath the water’s surface, using its large feet to propel itself downward. For the image, Stowe won gold in the contest’s black and white category.
“With a little bit of imagination, the combination of bird and ripples look like the head of a hippo,” he says in a statement.
Heavenly Elegant Flight by Nicolas Groffal
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Nicolas Groffal, a photographer based in France, took hundreds of photos before he finally captured one that depicts the “fleeting magic of nature in winter,” he says in a statement. His image, which won silver in the birds in flight category, shows a European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) preparing to land on a snow-dusted plant.
“In the dead of winter, I marvel at the aerial ballet of the garden birds that come to visit my trees and to take advantage of the seeds that I put out for them,” he says in a statement. “Discreetly hidden, I tried to immortalize their flight and its delicate trail using a flash and camera in ‘rear curtain’ mode. The mission was challenging, and these mischievous little models followed their own dance. However, it is precisely this spontaneity that makes the photographic challenge exhilarating.”
Swanception by Samual Stone
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U.K.-based photographer Samual Stone had long wanted to photograph a mute swan (Cygnus olor) framed by the curving neck of another, but each time he “attempted to turn it into reality, one of the elements was not right,” he says in a statement.
“It felt like I was in a creative rut, and I had not taken an image I was really happy with for a while,” he adds.
Eventually, though, all the pieces came together, and one morning in London, he captured Swanception, which won silver in the category for best portraits.
“Finally, I created the image I had pictured in my mind,” he says.
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