The Magazine of The Sierra Club
Check Out Audubon's 2019 Award-Winning Photos
Bird is the word
Photos courtesy of the National Audubon Society
Mariam Kamal of New York City became Audubon's 2019 winner in the Amateur category, thanks to this shot of a white-necked jacobin, shot at Dave and Dave's Nature Park in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.
This great blue heron, shot by Melissa Rowell of Vestal, New York, snagged honorable mention in the Amateur category. The photo was taken in the Wakodahatchee Wetlands of Delray Beach, Florida.
Ly Dang of Poway, California, fetched the Fisher Prize with this shot of a black-browed albatross, taken on Saunders Island, which is located in the Falkland Islands.
Elizabeth Boehm won in the Professional category for this photo of a greater sage-grouse, shot in her hometown of Pinedale, Wyoming.
Sebastian Velasquez of Menlo Park, California, won in the Youth category for this photo of a horned puffin, shot at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska.
Kevin Ebi of Lynnwood, Washington, won honorable mention in Audubon's Professional category with this bald eagle, shot at San Juan Island National Historical Park in Friday Harbor, Washington.
Garrett Sheets of St. Louis won honorable mention in the Youth category for this bobolink, shot at Dunn Ranch Prairie in Lincoln Township, Missouri.
Joseph Pryzbyla of Lakeland, Florida, was awarded honorable mention in the Plants for Birds category for this shot of a purple gallinule on a fire flag, shot in his hometown's Circle B Bar Reserve.
Michael Schulte of San Diego won the Plants for Birds prize, thanks to this hometown shot of a hooded oriole on a California fan palm.
Kathrin Swoboda of Vienna, Virginia, won 2019's grand prize with this photo of a red-winged blackbird in Alexandria, Virginia's Huntley Meadows Park.
This month, the National Audubon Society named six photographers as winners in the 10th-annual Audubon Photography Awards. Selected out of more than 2,200 entrants, these winning shots represent the finest among this year’s bird photography.
This year, judges introduced the Plants for Birds Prize and the Fisher Prize. The former—designed to highlight the importance of native plants, which provide natural green spaces for birds and the insects they feed on—was awarded to the highest-scoring photograph featuring birds and native plants. (Audubon’s Plants for Birds program serves to help participants find bird-friendly native plants and, effectively, help adapt outdoor spaces to a warming climate.) The latter awarded creative approaches to avian photography.
Some winning photographs portray species protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, one of Audubon’s founding conservation victories and a pivotal wildlife law that’s protected countless birds since 1918. (The MBTA is presently under attack, thanks to a new legal interpretation that would make it harder to hold industries accountable for bird deaths.)
The winning photos and honorable mentions will be featured at this month’s biennial Audubon Convention, in future issues of Audubon magazine and Nature’s Best Photography magazine and in a special traveling Audubon Photography Awards exhibit, hosted by Audubon chapters and centers across the country.
And you can get a sneak peek right here.