The grand prize winner was taken by Kathrin Swoboda of Vienna, Va. See the gallery below for photo details.
The grand prize winner of the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards captures a Red-winged Blackbird in a scene that would be at home on the wall of an art museum.
The most dramatic winning photo shows a Bald Eagle and a Red Fox fighting over a fish in a mid-air struggle.
For birders, the photos from the annual contest, held in conjunction with Nature’s Best Photography, is a tour of the beauty and power of birds in action. Some are so artful it takes a moment to decipher what you’re seeing. Others are magnificent angles of birds in flight. Two of the winning photos are closeups that give an entirely different perspective of their subjects.
The professional honorable mention went to Kevin Ebi, from Lynwood, Washington.
When the Audubon Society asked if we’d be interested in publishing these photos, we were delighted to share work that will appeal to photographers of every caliber and birders of every level. For those of us who spend hours upon hours following birds, it’s a pleasure to see what the very best photos can achieve.
The American Goldfinch is a symbol of summer. Impossibly yellow in May, June and July, they stand out like flashes of sunlight flitting across meadows, farmlands and treetops.
A few summers ago, on a birding trip through the South, we stopped to camp near Tupelo, Mississippi, next to a drained lake that had been overtaken by grasslands.
Two Cedar Waxwings materialized above the wildlife park in Northern Virginia and pirouetted into an aerial ballet. They rose and fell, circled high above the lake, then swooped down close to the ground. They pulled all this off in precise formation like two tiny jets on military maneuvers.
They are full of energy, captivating and fascinating, says Robert Rice, a veteran scientist with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, who wrote the center’s summary on Cedar Waxwings.
feet on lithe bodies of just 3 or 4 pounds. Their oversized talons, which lock into place when fishing, have powerful grips. Their eyes are loaded with sensors that help them to see 6 to 8 times better than humans.
As water levels have risen in coastal nesting places, the Spoonbills have looked elsewhere to find the unique environment they need. That in turn has helped them to spread their reach beyond heavily developed South Florida and the Everglades that had been their primary Florida breeding grounds for decades.
