Funny, Beautiful, Striking Birds In Photos: 18 Winners Of Bird Photographer Of The Year

The Bird Photographer of the Year has announced the winners of this year's photo competition chosen from more than 23,000 images entered from around the globe.

The thought-provoking image (below) of thousands of birds killed by flying into windows in Toronto took the 2024 title and a £3,500 grand prize.

The impactful image showing over 4,000 birds that died colliding with windows and other reflective surfaces in urban areas was taken by Canadia photographer Patricia Homonylo.

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"Each year, more than one billion birds die in North America alone due to collisions with windows," says Homonylo. "I am a conservation photojournalist and have been with the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) working to save window-collision survivors. Sadly, most of the birds we find are already dead."

The organization collected the birds and at the end of the year created the startling display to increase public awareness.

Bird Photographer of the Year celebrates the world's best bird photography, while supporting conservation efforts. This year, the competition donated £5,000 to partner charity Birds on the Brink, which provides vital funding to grass-roots bird conservation projects around the world.

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"The mark of a good photograph is one that either demonstrates artistry or tells a story," says Paul Sterry, Birds on the Brink trustee. "The mark of an exceptional one is that it does both. 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."

Photographers competed in eight categories: Best Portrait, Birds in the Environment, Bird Behavior, Birds in Flight, Black and White, Urban Birds, Conservation (Single Image), and Comedy Bird Photo. There are also a Young Bird Photographer award, Conservation Award, Portfolio Award and Video Award.

The 2025 competition is now open for entries and invites photographers of all experience levels to submit their best bird photos.

All the winners can be seen here.

Each year during spring and fall, millions of migrating birds die in North America as a result of window collisions.

Reflected light poses a severe threat. To a bird, a reflective surface such as a window can appear to be a continuation of the landscape behind them. Consequently, birds often fly straight into windows at full speed.

The Fatal Light Awareness Program encourages people and businesses to use bird-safe films on windows, bird screens, or window grills.

For more than 30 years, the organization's volunteers patrol cities worldwide and while their efforts have saved an impressive number of collision survivors, the majority do not survive the impact.

From hawks to hummingbirds, this display includes more than 4,000 birds.

Gold Award Winners

"I was sitting on a Zodiac next to my husband and 10-year-old son near Brown Bluff, Antarctica, when we spotted a group of Adélie Penguins," Haq recalls. "As we slowly approached them, they started to toboggan on the ice as if performing a modern dance move."

The image shows a mother goose and her brood crossing a road because she decided not to use the foreboding and dark underground passage below it.

These days, the journey of Common Mergansers in Warsaw is stressful and difficult. They hatch in the park about a kilometer from the life-giving Vistula River. Each mother has to move her brood to the river as quickly as possible due to lack of food and safety in the park. They make the journey through a series of underground passages and over a six-lane highway.

Each year, a group of volunteers help them cross the deadly road by stopping the traffic. After crossing, they arrive to the river where they can feed and grow. Here a volunteer blocks the road and a TV cameraman records this unique situation which occurs every late April in Warsaw, Poland.

"During my stay in Alaska, Grey-crowned Rosy-finches would gather in large flocks next to my hotel," explains Murphy. "Fortunately for photographers, they are a very tame species."

A trio of Northern Gannets dive into the ocean on a sunny day in Shetland. The species is Scotland's largest seabird, and they are remarkably adept in the water, with the ability to dive up to 22 meters deep.

"I took this photo while scuba diving near Noss, which is home to the U.K.'s seventh largest colony of Northern Gannets," says Zhou. "In the past, the population has been estimated at around 25,000 birds, though their numbers were unfortunately severely reduced by the avian flu outbreak. It is unclear when, or if, their population will be able to recover."

A Eurasian Hoopoe takes flight with its wings spread in a smooth motion across the canvas of an early-morning sky lit by the sunrise's bright hues.

"The bird would occasionally grab its prey in the air and each time it caught an insect it flew to a nearby tree," says Haridas. "That was when I had the idea to photograph the bird against a background divided into dark and light – a testament to the serendipitous wonders that await those who seek them amid the natural world."

Silver Award Winners

"I conceived the idea for this image some time ago, but each time I attempted to turn it into reality, one of the elements was not right," Stone explains.

"On this particular morning, the local Mute Swans were in their usual spot, preening in the morning light. It was also a crisp morning, and the mist was slowly descending, creating a soft morning glow. After so many attempts, everything finally came together."

"In the dead of winter, I marvel at the aerial ballet of the garden birds that come to eat the seeds I put out for them," said Groffal. "Hundreds of shots were required before I captured the perfect magic moment of nature in winter."

This Peregrine falcon fledgling had been flying for over a week and his skills had improved by the day. While he still took food from parents, he had started to practice his hunting skills.

He was not good enough to catch live birds in the air yet, so he took baby steps by chasing a fluttering butterfly.

A Grey Heron looks for a roosting place in the top of a dead tree, illuminated by a full moon during a penumbral lunar eclipse.

This poignant image captures the harsh reality in one of Bali's bird markets. The pair of lovebirds, snatched from their lush native rainforest, face each other in separate cages, appearing to say their final farewells.

Bronze Award Winners

"We were on a safari and returning to camp in Sabi Sands, South Africa, on a dark March evening," says Collye. "We stopped when we heard chattering and fluttering high above us. When illuminated with the lamp on the vehicle, we saw these helmetshrikes huddling together against a night that was starting to turn colder."

At Volunteer Point on the Falkland Islands in January 2023 a Southern Sea Lion was patrolling along the beach trying to catch penguins.

This individual has been there for several years and in the picture it is a Magellanic Penguin that faces the underwater threat.

For several weeks each year, Black Grouse gather on spring mornings for courtship and display. It can still be quite wintry and cold. They fly in before sunrise and land in the trees on the edge of the area where they court each other. Eventually the males come down, each claiming their patch, and spend a couple of hours sizing each other up, charging at each other, engaging in mostly mock battles. Sometimes, however, the encounters escalate to real fights.

Three Wild Turkeys were transformed into abstract art when photographed through a living room picture window on a snowy day.

A deceased Northern Gannet hangs from a fishing line as its former peers surround it and go about their daily lives on Scotland's Isle of Noss. Gannets are known to use a variety of artificial nest material, and this is yet another threat to their numbers.

This same colony of birds was decimated the previous year due to avian flu.

Young Bird Photographer of the Year

The Young Bird Photographer of the Year 2024 was awarded to 14-year-old Spanish photographer Andrés Luis Domínguez Blanco for his creative angle shot of a Eurasian Nuthatch scrambling down an oak tree.

"I photographed this Eurasian Nuthatch at Grazalema in southern Spain," Domínguez explains. "An oak tree next to a river provides cover for species such as woodpeckers and nuthatches coming down to drink. Since these species like to climb trunks, I thought about what their vision and perspective would be like."

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