The winners of this year’s annual Audubon Photography Awards competition were recently announced. Photographers entered images in four categories: professional, amateur, youth, and plants for birds. More than 8,700 images depicting birdlife from all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces and territories were judged. The National Audubon Society was once more kind enough to share some of this year’s winners and Top 100 images with us below.
The 2021 Audubon Photography Awards
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Greater Roadrunner. Grand Prize Winner. Carolina Fraser took the grand prize for this image of a greater roadrunner taking a dust bath among the oil pumps and open space at Los Novios Ranch in South Texas. #
Carolina Fraser / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
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Bald Eagles. Top 100. Two immature bald eagles, mostly brown in color with some white speckling, fight in mid-air over a fish. One holds up his talons as if pushing the attacker away, a small fish clutched in the other foot. The water of the Susquehanna River makes up most of the background. #
Jerry am Ende / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
Anna’s Hummingbird. Winner, Fisher Prize. More than a dozen purple blooms on a Pride of Madeira plant obscure all but a blurred wing and one eye of an Anna's hummingbird in California's Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve. #
Patrick Coughlin / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
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Snow Geese and Ross’s Geese. Top 100. Thousands of geese take to the air in unison. While snow geese and Ross’s geese are indistinguishable from this distance, Ross’s geese are smaller and have shorter necks and stubbier bills. #
Linda Muth / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
Black Skimmers. Top 100. Small waves roll as three black skimmers fly directly in line with one another and the lens, so their bodies seem to blend almost as one. Five black wings are visible as if extending from a single body, and two white heads and orange beaks graze the water. #
Douglas DeFelice / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
California Quail. Top 100. Framed by green and beige chaparral lining a sandy trail, a California quail stands on a rock in the middle of the path with its head turned to the side. #
Ti Yung Hwa / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
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Anhinga. Top 100. The sun outlines an anhinga’s neck and head. The bird, seen in profile view, is flaring the gular sac beneath its beak. The red translucent skin is brighter than the rest of the image, and veins are visible in the skin. #
Eric Schertler / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
Northern Cardinal. Professional Award Winner. A red male northern cardinal seems to float above the snowy ground, the crest feathers on its head blown backward in the wind as it flies in profile in front of gray plant stalks in rural Muskegon County in Michigan. #
Steve Jessmore / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
Lappet-faced Vulture. Top 100. A lappet-faced vulture holds up one wing in front of its pink head, one eye looking at the camera between its long wing feathers. #
Staci Winston / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
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American Avocet. Top 100. A white-and-black American avocet wades in the water with many other avocets. This bird, which captures aquatic invertebrates by sweeping its bill side to side, has water suspended in its open bill, making the thin feature seem much thicker than it actually is. #
Tim Timmis / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
White Ibis. Top 100. A white ibis, brilliant white with just a touch of black on the wing tips, stands on a maple-tree branch. Thousands of tiny flying insects backlit by the late-afternoon sun fill the frame like snow. #
Kelley Luikey / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
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Purple Sandpiper. Youth Award Winner. On a wet, rocky shore in Rockport, Massachusetts, a purple sandpiper sits with its beak tucked under its brown and gray wing, with blurred ocean waves in the background. #
Arav Karighattam / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
Mountain Bluebird. Top 100. A mountain bluebird tosses a cream-colored berry, which is captured suspended in the air just before entering its wide-open mouth. #
Eric Peterson / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
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Great Egret. Top 100. A great egret stands among branches flecked with dew. The bird’s delicate white plumes fan out around its silhouetted body and look golden in the sunlight, its head turned in profile. #
Tim Timmis / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
Lesser Yellowlegs. Top 100. Two lesser yellowlegs run side by side on a beach. Their bodies nearly appear as one bird with two sets of long, brightly colored legs and an open black bill. #
Tim Timmis / 2021 Audubon Photography Awards -
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