The overall winner of Bird Photographer of the Year 2019 was British photographer Caron Steele, for a picture of a Dalmatian pelican running across the frozen surface of Lake Kerkini in northern Greece. The competition, then in its fourth year, drew more than 13,500 entries from 63 countries, and a judging panel led by the naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham picked gold, silver and bronze winners in seven categories, plus a Best Portfolio prize, a Young Bird Photographer award and a new Inspirational Encounters award.
What makes this set worth a slow look is the variety. Some winners waited days in hides; others used drones, long exposures or their own software. Many of the photographers also wrote about how and why they took their pictures, and those notes reveal as much about the birds as about photography.
Below, every image we feature comes with the photographer, the award, where it was taken, and a short explanation of what you are seeing. Where a photographer's own account adds something, we summarise it in our words.
The overall winner and the special awards
Caron Steele (UK), Dalmatian pelican, Lake Kerkini, Greece. Overall Bird Photographer of the Year 2019, Gold in Best Portrait and the People's Choice award. Steele arrived to find the lake frozen for the first time in 16 years, and the pelicans had left. As the ice began to thaw in patches they returned, sliding comically as they tried to land and take off, and she caught one running towards her at dusk. Dalmatian pelicans are the largest pelicans in the world, with wingspans approaching three metres, and the species is listed as Near Threatened.
Martin Grace (UK), Emperor penguins, Snow Hill Island, Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Winner of the first Inspirational Encounters award. Grace describes a journey of decades of hoping, a rough crossing of the Drake Passage and a rare window through the sea ice that allowed only about half an hour at the colony. He took a few frames and then put the camera away to simply be with the birds, a reminder that the experience can matter more than the shot.
Thomas Hinsche (Germany), Black-crowned night heron, Kiskunság National Park, Hungary. Part of the portfolio that won Best Portfolio. The heron was hunting at twilight, and Hinsche used several flash units to light it in the fading June light. Night herons are mostly active at dusk and after dark, which is why they are so rarely photographed this clearly.
Portraits and attention to detail
Csaba Tökölyi (Hungary), Little egret, Pusztaszer, Hungary. Silver, Attention to Detail. After a night in a hide set up for nocturnal species, Tökölyi was rewarded at dawn by an egret in full breeding plumage. Instead of a wide view he used a telephoto lens to isolate the long, lacy back plumes, which drape over the bird like a gown. Those same plumes were once so fashionable on hats that egrets were hunted heavily for them.
William Steel (UK/South Africa), Western cattle egret with a southern white rhino, Khama Rhino Sanctuary, Botswana. Bronze, Best Portrait. Cattle egrets follow large grazing animals and snap up insects disturbed from the grass, a classic example of one species benefiting while the other is unaffected. Steel framed the bright egret against the rhino fading into darkness, a quiet comment on the rhino's decline from poaching.
Pål Hermansen (Norway), Northern goshawk, Trøndelag, Norway. Gold, Attention to Detail. Hermansen photographed the adult goshawk at a forest feeding site and chose a very long lens to pick out feather patterns rather than the whole bird. The moment the yellow feet appeared in the frame, he had the picture he wanted.
Bird behaviour and birds in flight
Hu Yi (China), Reeves's pheasants, Xinyang, Henan Province, China. Bronze, Bird Behaviour. Two males perform a coordinated display meant to impress a nearby female. Reeves's pheasant has one of the longest tails of any bird, and the species is a protected and treasured sight in its native central China.
Ivan Sjögren (Sweden), Purple-crowned fairy, Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica. Gold, Bird Behaviour. Hummingbirds in the rainforest bathe by hovering over small pools and dipping briefly into the water. Sjögren used flash to light the stones on the bottom, which turned the water gold as the bird lifted out.
Jozsef Gergely (Serbia), Grey heron, Kanjiža, Serbia. Silver, Bird Behaviour. Fish farms attract herons in large numbers, and this one balanced on a net despite its size. Gergely shot into the light for a bright, high-key effect, handheld at 1/2,500 of a second.
Nikunj Patel (USA), Black skimmer, Ocean City, New Jersey, USA. Gold, Birds in Flight. Patel lay low on a beach near a nesting colony and caught a skimmer flying straight at the lens after bathing. Skimmers are the only birds whose lower bill is longer than the upper, which they slice through the water to catch fish. They need open, undisturbed beaches to nest, and coastal development has left them few safe places.
Liron Gertsman (Canada), Cobalt-winged parakeets, Yasuní National Park, Ecuador. Bronze, Birds in Flight. Reaching this clay lick in the Amazon took a flight, a long boat trip, a canoe ride and daily hikes, followed by three days of waiting. Parrots eat mineral-rich clay at such sites, possibly to gain sodium or to counter toxins in their diet. A slow shutter speed turns the departing flock into a blur of green motion.
Birds in their environment and creative imagery
Mohammad Khorshed (Kuwait), Mixed gulls, Kuwait. Gold, Birds in the Environment. Shot from a drone at low tide, the image shows gulls and herons feeding on a mirror-like intertidal zone under clouds. Khorshed waited many days for still water, good clouds and birds to line up before the tide changed the scene.
Edwin Giesbers (Netherlands), Long-eared owls, Balgoij, Netherlands. Silver, Birds in the Environment. Long-eared owls usually live alone, but from autumn to spring some gather in communal roost trees, often in villages and towns. As deciduous trees lose their leaves, the owls tend to move into evergreens where they are better hidden.
Audun Lie Dahl (Norway), Common guillemots, Hornøya, Finnmark, Norway. Bronze, Creative Imagery. Hornøya, a tiny island, hosts Norway's northernmost seabird cliffs, where thousands of guillemots breed. After several visits Dahl finally got the backlight he wanted and used the lens aperture to turn the birds and the glittering sea into soft circles of light.
Kathryn Cooper (UK), Mixed seabirds, RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire, UK. Silver, Creative Imagery. Around half a million seabirds use the cliffs at Bempton, which is hard to show in a single frame. Cooper, who has a background in science and programming, wrote her own software to compress about five seconds of video into one image, so each line is a bird's flight path.
Garden and urban birds
Chad Larsen (Canada), Snowy owl, Saskatchewan, Canada. Gold, Garden and Urban Birds. During a Christmas holiday trip, Larsen found a white owl perched on top of a small white church. Focusing on a white subject against a pale background is notoriously tricky, and he also had to reposition without disturbing the bird.
Meera Sulaiman (Canada), Trumpeter swans, Lake Ontario, Canada. Silver, Garden and Urban Birds. The swans winter at a heavily polluted industrial site on Lake Ontario. Trumpeter swans, the largest native waterfowl in North America, were nearly wiped out by hunting by the late 1800s and had vanished from Ontario before a long reintroduction effort brought them back.
Martin Eschholz (Germany), Long-tailed duck, Vardø harbour, Varanger, Norway. Bronze, Garden and Urban Birds. Arctic Norway is mostly white in winter, but the painted boats and buildings of its fishing harbours throw bright reflections. Long-tailed ducks winter there, sometimes picking at fish waste, and look surprisingly delicate for birds that cope with Arctic seas.
Young Bird Photographer of the Year
Tamás Koncz-Bisztricz (Hungary), Mallards, Hungary. Gold, Young Bird Photographer of the Year. Using a drone flown slowly down from high altitude, a method also used in bird counts, he photographed mallards on a hidden soda lake between Tömörkény and Pálmonostora. The ducks stir up mud and leave trails, while decaying reeds and the sky tint the water in yellow, brown, purple and blue.
Madeline Nolan (USA), Rufous hummingbird, Creede, Colorado, USA. Silver, Young Bird Photographer of the Year. On a family trip she borrowed her mother's new camera and long lens every morning and caught a female hummingbird with its tongue out. A hummingbird's tongue is forked and works like a tiny pump to draw up nectar, so seeing it is a real treat.
What these photos teach about watching birds
Patience is the common thread. Almost every winner describes returning to a site, waiting in a hide or watching the light for days. Several pictures also show behaviour, such as bathing, displaying or roosting, that you will only see by staying still and letting birds get used to you.
The best of these photographers also put the bird first. Drones and flash can disturb wildlife if misused, and a striking angle is never permission to approach too closely. Guidance from national parks and bird charities is simple: keep your distance, never flush a bird for a picture, and leave nests alone.
Finally, several images carry a quiet conservation message, from the pelican's Near Threatened status to the skimmer's shrinking beaches, the rhino in the background and the swans returning to a polluted shore. You can explore all of the 2019 results on the official site and follow the competition on Facebook and Instagram.
Sources: All photographs © the named photographers, courtesy of Bird Photographer of the Year; BPOTY 2019 winners (official site); Young BPOTY 2019 winners; My Modern Met; Wikipedia: Dalmatian pelican.
COMMENTS