Audubon’s Annual Photography Contest Features a Modest Winner

The grand prize winner in Audubon’s annual photography contest is remarkable for its banality: a pair of rock pigeons, one of the most common birds on the planet.

Photographer Liron Gertsman found the birds mid-preen in a pose suggesting the two are sharing a secret. “I rarely point my lens toward pigeons, but I couldn’t resist as this pair, perched under a pier, carefully groomed each other’s feathers.”

Another very common species, the Baltimore oriole, was captured by Sandra M. Rothenberg in the amateur category. The small female was spotted with a beakful of horsehair, hemp, and sisal fibers. “The birds use the materials to build their pendulous, pear-shaped nests. What miraculous feats of avian engineering!”

Vancouver photographer Shane Kalyn went farther afield – to Iceland’s Westman Islands – where he met his first Atlantic puffin. “There we saw a lone bird perched on the most amazing lava rock cliff, which was covered in colorful lichen and blooming wildflowers. It was raining and the sky was dark, creating a moody tone.” About two million nesting pairs of puffins, roughly half the world’s population, live and breed in Iceland.

Video award winner Steven Chu brought his camera to our own backyard – Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge in Wallkill, New York – to capture eight beautiful seconds of two short-eared owls, pirouetting as one in an airborne ballet. “The birds locked talons and cartwheeled downward, releasing each other just before hitting the ground. I’d never seen this before. It was my lucky day!”

Watch Chu’s lovely clip, and take a look at all the winners and runners-up, at the Audubon Photography Awards website. For hard copies, donate to receive the summer issue of Audubon’s magazine.