The 2026 Audubon Photography Awards: Winners

Behind the Shot: I used to be on a ship with a crew of scientists who have been searching for fin whales and sperm whales, when a gaggle of Black-browed Albatrosses circled us with apparent curiosity. The water was exceptionally clear, so I made a decision to submerge my GoPro digicam hooked up to a protracted pole to seize the fragile motion of the birds’ webbed ft beneath the floor. Immediately, one swam nearer and dove down as if to research the shiny object. Within the slow-motion footage, you may see its eyes in stunning element. 

Behind the Shot: Photographing this Oilbird in flight inside its sanctuary of shadows was a take a look at of persistence and method. I knew the lighting circumstances within the cavern can be vital, so I went forward of the group I used to be with, crossing a speeding river to search out the proper angle with out disturbing the world. I elevated my digicam’s gentle sensitivity and used a excessive shutter pace to freeze the birds’ motion. As my companions caught up with me, the cave got here alive in an explosion of fluttering wings. I had a nasty fall on the river rocks on my return journey, however my knee ache vanished once I noticed this picture. 

Chicken Lore: The phrase distinctive barely begins to explain the Oilbird. These birds reside in colonies inside caves, rising solely at evening to feed on sure kinds of fruiting bushes. Their eyes are extremely delicate to gentle, they’ve a eager sense of odor, they usually additionally use echolocation to navigate. Whereas flying, they produce bursts of sharp clicking calls, and the returning echoes permit them to keep away from obstacles within the forest on moonless nights or within the whole darkness of a cavern.   

Decide’s Take (Sebastian Herzog): Taking sharp, fascinating photographs of birds in flight requires loads of expertise and talent, however capturing a primarily nocturnal hen inside a cave with out utilizing a flash is on one other stage! This picture stands out for its technically complicated execution, which freezes the Oilbird in mid-flight and permits us to discern all the main points of its plumage, regardless of lighting circumstances removed from splendid. It provides us a uncommon glimpse into the darkish house of this enigmatic species.   

Behind the Shot: Saguaro cactus blossoms start opening in early April in southeast Arizona.  They solely bloom for a couple of day and a half, offering a chance to look at pollinators like birds and bats. The flowers are often approach too excessive for me to get a very good perspective, however these have been on an arm that grew to the aspect. I finished by each morning, ready for the buds to open. Once they did, I watched this feminine woodpecker’s head fully disappear into the blossom because it sampled the nectar. The result’s each whimsical and engaging conduct. 

Chicken Lore: In dry lowlands of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, Gila Woodpeckers have an in depth relationship with the large saguaro cactus, an icon of the Sonoran Desert. When the saguaro blooms, the birds go to the flowers and help in pollination. Later they return to eat the fruits and excavate a nest within the cactus. The smooth inside pulp stiffens across the birds’ nest cavity over time, and the ensuing exhausting shell might function a pure birdhouse for different species for a few years to come back. 

Decide’s Take (Marlene Pantin): This picture artfully demonstrates the mutual bond between these two species. The birds depend on the plant for protected nesting areas and meals, as we see right here, and the cacti profit from the pollination providers that woodpeckers present. 

Behind the Shot: I used to be in Tolima for a marriage and took the chance to go to this magical but desolate mountain panorama. A few of the nation’s final wax palm forests survive right here, at the same time as multinational companies proceed clearing these ecosystems to make approach for monocultures of Hass avocado crops. With an area information, I went to see the Yellow-eared Parrot, whose survival will depend on the wax palm. I hope this picture of the hen and palm surrounded by crops conveys a message of vigilance: Due to the tireless efforts of environmental advocates, the species was saved from close to extinction—but when avocado plantations preserve encroaching, the parrot’s story of restoration may take a flip for the more severe. 

Chicken Lore: A big parrot of the Andes, this species was previously frequent in elements of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador, however suffered steep losses as a consequence of habitat destruction. By the late Nineteen Nineties, its inhabitants was estimated at solely about 80 people. With intensive efforts to guard its habitat, Yellow-eared Parrot numbers have bounced again, with current estimates of greater than 2,000 birds. However that’s nonetheless a dangerously low quantity. 

Decide’s Take (Jaír F. Coll): This {photograph} captures the poignant resilience of the Yellow-eared Parrot. The scene contrasts the hen’s solitude with a background dominated by the geometry of monoculture crops, highlighting the fragmentation of the species’ habitat. With an impeccable composition, the work shouldn’t be solely aesthetically stunning but in addition serves as an pressing invitation to replicate on the stress that agribusiness exerts on our Andean panorama and its endemic species.  

Behind the Shot: Whereas my father went paddleboarding in Puget Sound, I might usually stroll alongside the shoreline to {photograph} herons, gulls, and Ospreys. Most days, I dismissed pigeons as too frequent to doc. This morning, nonetheless, I seen Rock Pigeons swoop out from beneath an outdated pier to gather nesting materials after which financial institution again beneath, flaring their wings and fanning their tail feathers large as they braked to land. One particular person’s plumage appeared to glow every time it handed by means of a shaft of daylight. I positioned myself on boulders beneath the pier and captured this shot when the pigeon swept into the body. The expertise taught me a lesson: Even frequent birds can produce the day’s most putting picture. 

Chicken Lore: Launched around the globe by people, the Rock Pigeon has confirmed surprisingly adaptable and resilient. In its authentic vary in elements of Eurasia and northern Africa, it nested on cliffs alongside the coast or in arid foothills. At this time it may be discovered nesting on constructing ledges, in barns, underneath bridges, and on myriad different artifical websites on six continents. The beams beneath a coastal pier might present an ideal website for a nest, with the floor above maintaining rain out and the water beneath deterring land-based predators. 

Decide’s Take (Sadie Hine): The very first thing that stands out about this picture is the artistic use of sunshine. By capturing this precise second, the photographer reworked a typical, missed hen right into a putting topic. The delicate background textures add visible curiosity and parts of storytelling and superbly complement the hen’s heat tones. The longer you look, the extra particulars you uncover. 

Behind the Shot: I spend loads of time photographing waterfowl, however on this bitterly chilly winter day, I used to be reluctant to go away my heat home. I pushed myself to exit. The geese weren’t very lively, and after half-hour I made a decision to go heat up within the automotive. Usually I go away my digicam on the ice throughout breaks, however this time I took it with me. Thank goodness I did, as a result of simply as I reached the automotive, I noticed a feminine Frequent Merganser with a flatfish take to the air to guard her catch from different mergansers. I used to be thrilled to snap this body as she handed me at eye stage, however I frightened it wouldn’t be tack sharp. It was!  

Chicken Lore: Mergansers are among the many few geese that usually eat fish, diving and swimming gracefully underwater to seize them of their lengthy, slim payments. Ordinarily the hen will eat its prey promptly after catching it, pausing solely lengthy sufficient to maneuver the fish into place for swallowing it headfirst. But when different members of the flock attempt to steal the catch, the hen might need to maneuver to maintain maintain of its meal. 

Decide’s Take (Jess Gorzo): This felt like a portrait match for a discipline information illustration, whereas on the identical time a unprecedented motion shot delivered to life by vivid lighting and reflective ice and snow. The judges appreciated each the luck and talent concerned in capturing this completely framed second in flight, fish in beak. Along with its wonderful composition and topic, this joyful picture captures a day within the lifetime of a feminine Frequent Merganser. 

Behind the Shot: I used to be strolling by means of the woods with a gaggle of birding mates one cloudy morning once I got here throughout a Plain-backed Antpitta—a lifer for me and one of many first information of the species for the world. With that sighting, my day was already a hit, however then I noticed​​​​ this Canada Warbler. I took a photograph, but it surely was solely once I checked out it later that I seen the proper dew-covered spiderweb hanging beneath the department. The hen appears to be wanting on the net, making a pure concord. For 3 years, I had tried many instances to get a good picture of this species, however I hadn’t but succeeded. What you see earlier than you is a dream fulfilled. 

Chicken Lore: Present in its namesake nation for lower than half the yr, the Canada Warbler is a long-distance migrant. It spends the nonbreeding season principally in South America at center elevations within the Andes, the place it largely sticks to dense understory of rain forest and cloud forest. It should typically be part of with flocks of different migrant or resident birds—particularly those who observe swarms of military ants. The Canada Warbler then seizes the possibility to seize smaller bugs that the ants scare up.  

Decide’s Take (Sebastian Herzog): Capturing this intriguing composition of an grownup male Canada Warbler—a migratory species that not often stays nonetheless—requires taking pictures at simply the appropriate second, with a really sharp focus and the perfect depth of discipline. Right here, the hen appears to pause for a second in its fixed seek for meals to stare upon a spiderweb. The raindrops caught on the internet shine and exhibit the online’s distinctive geometry.  

Behind the Shot: Nesting is not only a relationship between two birds; it’s usually an entire set of species interactions. When a wax palm dies, woodpeckers peck into the bark, creating hollows that Yellow-eared Parrots later occupy. On at the present time, I waited​​ greater than eight hours underneath the towering wax palms for this couple to look. They’d simply begun to construct their house, and I needed to seize them coming into their nest, however the gentle labored towards me. Then the pair provided a extra intimate scene: their ritual of preening, a vital conduct for sustaining and strengthening their bond. The on a regular basis interplay on this picture felt like an genuine expression of connection and mutual care. 

Chicken Lore: A number of sorts of parrots around the globe have particular connections to specific kinds of palm bushes. For Yellow-eared Parrots of the Colombian Andes, their survival will depend on wax palms of the genus Ceroxylon. Though they are going to feed on different kinds of fruits, the exhausting, reddish fruits of wax palms present the mainstay of their weight loss plan. Yellow-eared Parrots additionally breed in colonies in groves of tall wax palms, every pair inserting its nest in a gap excessive in a trunk.  

Decide’s Take (Niky Carrera Levy): The picture’s composition highlights each the parrots and wax palm, reminding us of an important relationship. The interplay between the 2 birds conveys a way of intimacy and dependence on the territory, whereas the textures of the trunk distinction harmoniously with the hues of their plumage. Past its aesthetic attraction, the picture reveals that useless wax palms proceed to function a refuge and a house. It is a deeply Colombian {photograph} that unites narrative, conduct, and conservation in a single snapshot.  

These photographs initially ran within the Fall 2026 subject. To obtain our print journal, change into a member by making a donation today. You may as well view the runner-up pictures at this link, and keep tuned for our judges’ Prime 100 photographs from the awards—approaching September 23.