Smart News | September 2, 2026 3:48 p.m.

These 20 Breathtaking Bird Images From the Audubon Photography Awards Capture the Wonder of the Winged World

The winners of the 17th annual contest reveal the beauty of birds, the splendor of their migratory journeys and the risks they face

a close-up of the side of an albatross's head, featuring its dark feathers around the eye that look like a black eyebrow

The annual contest highlights not only birds but their behaviors, habitats and threats. Rodrigo González Pairoa / Audubon Photography Awards

These 20 Breathtaking Bird Images From the Audubon Photography Awards Capture the Wonder of the Winged World

The winners of the 17th annual contest reveal the beauty of birds, the splendor of their migratory journeys and the risks they face

Carlyn Kranking | Associate Web Editor, Science

September 2, 2026 3:48 p.m.

From a seabird flying above an erupting volcano to a woodpecker with its face plunged into a flower, the winners of the 17th Audubon Photography Awards celebrate birds, the places they go and the incredible ways that they survive.

Today, the National Audubon Society shared the winners and honorable mentions of its annual contest, which recognizes photos and videos of bird behavior.

For its first 15 years, the competition was only open to residents of the United States and Canada. Last year, the nonprofit added a parallel competition for photographers in Chile and Colombia—two countries that “host some of the world’s most astounding avian biodiversity,” wrote the editors of Audubon magazine last year. Incorporating parts of South America into the competition highlights “how birds connect people across geographies and ecosystems,” according to a statement from the National Audubon Society. Separate panels of judges assessed the entries for each of the two regions.

“The judges loved the action, drama and striking lighting” in the grand prize-winning shot for the U.S. and Canada contest, as Mary Anne Karren, a contest judge and wildlife photographer, tells Audubon magazine. The winning photo, captured by photographer Jacqueline Burke, features a roseate spoonbill bathing. It’s “an unusual take on a popular species,” Karren adds, as the birds are often imaged while foraging.

In the Chile and Colombia contest, the grand prize winner also captures a spectacular bird: a lesser horned owl. “Set against a dimly lit backdrop, the captivating gaze of this majestic owl’s intense yellow eyes stands out against its snow-white face, creating a fairy-tale atmosphere,” judge Sebastian Herzog, Audubon’s protected areas strategy director for Latin America and the Caribbean, tells Audubon.

Beyond the grand prizes, the judges picked winners across wide-ranging categories that honor not just birds but many aspects of their ecology. The “birds without borders” category shows the far-flung places that host migratory species, while “plants for birds” highlights the importance of their habitats. One prize even recognizes female birds, which tend to be overlooked in wildlife photography and science alike.

The following 20 photos are this year’s category winners, along with a few honorable mentions. Audubon will share the top 100 images from the contest on September 23. Until then, take a look at the biodiversity and beauty captured in these commended photographs.

a gray and black owl with dark ear tufts and yellow eyes sits on a cactus — **Grand prize, Chile and Colombia:** Patagonia’s largest and most powerful owl sat quietly on a cactus in Paposo Natural Preserve in Antofagasta, Chile. The photographer slowly approached the bird, hiding behind plants as he went, in an attempt to avoid disturbing it. Only when he had gotten close enough to see the creature in his viewfinder did it become clear what he’d found: a magnificent lesser horned owl. Francisco Castro Escobar / Audubon Photography Awards

a pink bird with a spoon-shaped beak leans forward and walks in water, splashing — **Grand prize, U.S. and Canada:** Amid a bright and lively rookery, where wading birds gather to nest, a roseate spoonbill splashes and bathes, lit by a sunbeam. Here, at Florida’s St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, the alligators deter animals that might otherwise prey on bird eggs or hatchlings. Jacqueline Burke / Audubon Photography Awards

on a thin branch with a spider web below it, sits a little bird with a gray back, yellow underside and black dotted band from its chin and across its chest — **Youth, Chile and Colombia, winner:** The migratory Canada warbler “rarely stays still,” judge Herzog tells *Audubon*, but in this moment, an adult male is captured in crisp focus as it pauses to stare at a spiderweb. Juan David Camacho Márquez / Audubon Photography Awards

overhead view of a brown and white pigeon in flight — **Youth, U.S. and Canada, winner:** “Most days, I dismissed pigeons as too common to document,” photographer Ian Shultz tells *Audubon*. But when he saw a group of rock pigeons flying in and out from beneath an old pier in Seattle’s Puget Sound, collecting nesting material, he did an unusual thing and trained his lens on them. “The experience taught me a lesson: Even common birds can produce the day’s most striking image.” Ian Shultz / Audubon Photography Awards

a loon-like bird with a red head flies low over the water, holding material in her beak — **Female bird, winner:** A female common merganser carries a flatfish to protect her catch from other mergansers that were feeding nearby in Nova Scotia, Canada. Gail Bisson / Audubon Photography Awards

a white bird flies above smoke and lava — **Birds in landscapes, U.S. and Canada, winner:** White-tailed tropicbirds made their nests in the caldera walls of Kīlauea volcano in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Photographer Liron Gertsman spent ten days waiting for the right moment, and when the volcano erupted, he captured this seabird amid the gases, ash and lava. Liron Gertsman / Audubon Photography Awards

a brown bird flies with its wings out in the dark — **Birds in landscapes, Colombia, winner:** An oilbird flies through darkness in Colombia’s Guácharos Cave National Natural Park. The nocturnal species, locally called the *guácharo*, lives in caves by day and emerges at night to feed on fruit, navigating with echolocation. Faber Mosquera Alvarez / Audubon Photography Awards

two birds of prey with white chests sit in front of a reflective lake and high mountains in the distance — **Birds in landscapes, Chile, winner:** Two crested caracaras stand together in Torres del Paine National Park in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region. The birds of prey belong to the falcon family, but they scavenge from carrion like vultures do, in addition to hunting. Timothy Dhalleine / Audubon Photography Awards

a great blue heron stands in water with large trees in the background and light sun — **Birds in landscapes, U.S. and Canada, honorable mention:** A great blue heron stands among cypress trees in the Caddo Lake Wildlife Management Area in Karnak, Texas. Jay Vanos / Audubon Photography Awards

Birds without borders, U.S. and Canada, winner: A Tennessee warbler perches on an elderberry branch amid hunting flying ants in photographer and wildlife biologist Nick Parayko’s backyard in Alberta, Canada. Nick Parayko / Audubon Photography Awards

dozens of brown pelicans stand in shallow water on a beach, with one flying overhead and large rocky formations rising from the water in the background — **Birds without borders, U.S. and Canada, honorable mention:** Brown pelicans gather on Cannon Beach, Oregon, providing a lively foreground to the towering Haystack Rock. Erich Podbielski / Audubon Photography Awards

a green parrot with yellow on the side of its head pokes its head out from a hole in a tree and nuzzles a second parrot that is sitting on the side of the trunk — **Plants for birds Colombia, winner:** Wax palm trees provide both a nesting habitat and a buffet for yellow-eared parrots, which occupy holes made by woodpeckers and feast on the plants’ small, reddish fruits. Here, two of the parrots preen each other. Santiago Giraldo / Audubon Photography Awards

amid green, bulb-like flower buds on a cactus, one flower has opened in a white bloom, and a black and white and brown woodpecker has stuck its whole face into it — **Plants for birds, U.S. and Canada, winner:** A female gila woodpecker sticks her head into a flower on a saguaro cactus in Tucson, Arizona. These flowers only stay open for about a day and a half, supporting pollinators like bats and birds. Mike Henry / Audubon Photography Awards

a small bird with an orange chest, blue head and black chin flies while looking at a stringy plant — **Plants for birds, Colombia, honorable mention:** At Alto del Zarzo in Caldas, Colombia, a golden-rumped euphonia builds its nest with mosses and lichens. The birds also love mistletoe, which provides them with berries for food. David Paredes Bravo / Audubon Photography Awards

a black seabird flies over water, its beak full of grass. Only the bird's head, the grass and part of the tail are in crisp focus, the rest artfully blurred — **Plants for birds, U.S. and Canada, honorable mention:** A Brandt’s cormorant carries surfgrass in Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz, California. The species relies on these marine flowering plants to build its nests, “linking the health of the nearshore ocean to their success on land,” photographer Kevin Lohman tells *Audubon*. Lohman panned his camera and slowed his shutter speed to create this partially blurred composition. Kevin Lohman / Audubon Photography Awards

white seabirds with yellow on their heads sit on a rocky cliffside amid fishing lines and trash, one bird is hanging, dead, with a line wrapped around its neck — **Conservation, U.S. and Canada, winner:** Northern gannets nest on the cliffs of the Isle of Noss in the United Kingdom’s Shetland Islands. Here, one has been killed by a piece of fishing line tangled around its neck, highlighting the risk of pollution to birds. “This species already faces many challenges, including climate change and disease; only the year before my visit, avian flu had decimated the colony,” photographer Josh Galicki tells *Audubon*. “I took this image as a reminder of one more obstacle we put in the way of this charismatic species.” Josh Galicki / Audubon Photography Awards

a green parrot with yellow on its head sits on a cylindrical structure in front of rolling hills with lines of trees and a curved road that cuts through — **Conservation, Chile and Colombia, winner:** A yellow-eared parrot sits atop a wax palm tree trunk at the Anaime River Canyon in Tolima, Colombia. Nearby, avocado plantations encroach on some of the last wax palm forests in the country. Santiago Pérez Rincón / Audubon Photography Awards

seen from above, a gentoo penguin swims in blue water — **Coastal birds of Chile, winner:** A gentoo penguin swims near a Chilean Navy vessel in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region. Gonzalo Bertolotto Quintana / Audubon Photography Awards

framed by tall rocks a single bird flies against the bright sun above crashing waves — **Coastal birds of Chile, honorable mention:** A red-legged cormorant flies in front of a bright sky, seen through a natural rock arch. Marcelo Cárcamo Vera / Audubon Photography Awards

These 20 Breathtaking Bird Images From the Audubon Photography Awards Capture the Wonder of the Winged World

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