Amazing bird photos show amazing flying creatures

Amazing bird photos show amazing flying creatures

Zane Wolf

While science and photography often go hand in hand for strictly practical purposes, sometimes we should take the time to stop and appreciate the beauty, complexity and sometimes cruelty of the world we see through our camera lens. The winners of this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year competition celebrate avian diversity and human creativity, and offer a glimpse into our evolving relationship with these animals.

This year’s competition received more than 23,000 photo submissions across three youth and eight adult categories, with Ontario photographer Patricia Seaton Homoniro winning the Conservation Gold Award, the title of Bird Photographer of the Year, and £3,500 (approximately $4,670). The category winners’ stunning images are as diverse in location, style and color as the birds they capture, and the incredible skills required are apparent in the images themselves and the stories they tell.

Sometimes a truly great photograph just comes out of nowhere. The photographer must be in the right place at the right time with the knowledge and ability to capitalize on that moment. We see that a lot in the photos in the Comedy category of the competition; after all, it’s hard to predict when an animal is going to do something funny. In some cases, the photographer must recognize the emotional impact of a scene and somehow capture that abstract emotion in a still image.

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And often, a photograph is the result of hours of deliberate work. You need knowledge of animal behavior, gained by spending a fair amount of time with animals. You need to have a mental image and set up to take the photo, even if the animal is nowhere to be found at first. And, of course, the patience to wait until the animal comes along and the ambient light is just right. And the patience to take so many soul-crushing “too close” photos, all the while draining your digital memory and battery. In the end, all these elements combine to capture an amazing moment frozen in time.

Technology has made it easier to take amazing photos like these, but at the same time, these amazing images often disappear online in an instant. Photography competitions help bring these incredible images back into the public eye and remind us that the world can be a magical place.

Bird Photographer of the Year, Conservation Category: Gold Award

At the interface of wilderness and sprawling human society lies tragedy. It is estimated that between 100 million and 1 billion birds die each year from colliding with glass facades, especially during their annual migration. For over 30 years, the Canadian Deadly Light Awareness Program (FLAP) has been doing its best to collect and memorialize these dead birds. In 2022, volunteers created this “bird layout” containing the remains of over 4,000 birds to commemorate these lost lives. The photo, taken by Canadian photographer Patricia Seaton Homoniro, When worlds collide As a volunteer with FLAP Canada.

Young Bird Photographer of the Year, Ages 12-14: Gold Award

With great planning and patience, young Spanish photographer Andrés Luis Domínguez Blanco used a remote-controlled camera attached to a tree to capture this nuthatch’s view of the world. “I thought about what their vision and perspective would be,” Blanco said in a statement. Then, all he had to do was wait for the bird to walk into the picture. perspective.

Flying Bird: Gold Award Winner

Whispers at Dawn: A graceful hoopoe silhouetted at sunrise This photograph is the result of meticulous observation, planning and patience by photographer Khamis Haridas, who captured the image in the United Arab Emirates. Haridas began by spending a day observing the Eurasian Hoopoe as it repeatedly flies between the trees where it finds its prey and the ones where it eats. After coming up with the idea for this image, Haridas returned the following morning and set up his camera to record the bird’s flight, capturing a moment that was “uniquely fascinating.”

Black and White: Bronze

You don’t always have to trek through forests and swamps to take photos. Some can be taken from your living room. That’s exactly what Minnesota photographer Sparky Stensaarth did. Snow Turkey From the comfort of your own window. Creativity knows no boundaries, let alone the boundaries of glass.

Best Portrait: Silver Award

Sometimes photographers envision an image long before they have the opportunity or ability to realize it. That was certainly the case with Samual Stone from the UK. “Every time I tried to realize it, some element just didn’t work,” he says. “I felt creatively stuck.” As a last resort, Stone revisited his local flock of mute swans. This time, the mist had descended, the swans were lined up in a row, and Stone was able to capture the image of his dreams. Swanception.

Flying Bird: Silver Award

In another example of clever planners getting the frame, French photographer Nicolas Grofal set up in a garden to capture European goldfinches flying about in search of food in winter. “It took hundreds of shots to capture the perfect moment that depicts the fleeting magic of winter nature,” Grofal said. The photo was ” A heavenly flight.

Conservation: Silver Award

in Inmates, Chen Kang from Australia captured the touching moment at a bird market in Bali, where the two birds got as close as they could to each other, but it still wasn’t enough. “Facing each other in separate cages, the lovebird pair appear to be saying their final goodbye, not knowing if they will ever see each other again,” Kang said. “Who knows what joy they shared together in the lush pristine rainforest, and if they will ever be able to experience it again?”

Conservation: Bronze Award

The string that binds the nest also serves as a noose, but the northern booby’s life continues. Postmortem examination The image, taken in Scotland, was intended by American photographer Joshua Galicki to remind us that human-made waste “is an even bigger obstacle for this species, and is compounded by other challenges such as disease and climate change.”

Comedy Category: Gold Award

American photographer Nadia Haq, who won gold in the comedy category, captured adorable Adelie penguins sledding on the ice near Brown Bluff, Antarctica. Modern dancer, Haku elegantly captures a moment that Olympic breakdancers might one day aspire to achieve.

Best Portrait: Gold Award

On a snowy day in Homer, Alaska, photographer Alan Murphy came across this Grey-streaked Finch. The bird waited patiently while Murphy quickly set up his tripod and camera and snapped a few quick shots, then flew off. With the colorful boats moored in the marina in the background and the flat, magical light emanating from the falling snow, the portrait is like a breath of fresh air. Can you smell the evergreens?