2020 Audubon Photography Awards: 10 most stunning bird images

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Washington Bureau Chief

The sheer, fantastic diversity of avian life in the Americas has been captured in more than 6,000 submissions to the National Audubon Society’s (NAS) 2020 Photography Awards, from all 50 US states and seven Canadian provinces and territories.

2020 marks the 11th year of the contest, which honours images that evoke the resilience and beauty of birds of all sizes and affinities, be it land, air or sea. The winning photographs will be featured in future issues of Audubon and Nature’s Best Photography magazines.

This year, grand prize winner Joanna Lentini took home $5,000 (£3,988) for her breathtaking photograph of a double-crested cormorant underwater, diving for fish.

Among the other winning images was a frigate bird puffing its red chest, a bare-throated tiger heron, a striking northern jacana, an American goldfinch searching for food on a cup plant, an American dipper veiled by water, a greater sage-grouse, Anna’s hummingbird piercing a droplet of water, a greater radrunner about to snack on a lizard, and a Tennessee warbler on an eastern prickly gooseberry.

But as bewitching as the beauty of avian life may be, NAS warned that the climate emergency is a serious threat to two-thirds of North American birds.

According to a recent climate science report, in which researchers studied 140 million observations recorded by birders and scientists, it is clear that “birds will be forced to relocate to find favourable homes” as the climate continues to warm, and “may not survive”.

“By stabilising carbon emissions and holding warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, 76 per cent of vulnerable species will be better off, and nearly 150 species would no longer be vulnerable to extinction from climate change,” said the report.