Powerful photos birds soar to new heights 2021 Audubon Photography Awards

The National Audubon Society has announced the winners and honorable mentions of its 2021 Photography Awards.

The twelfth annual competition invites professional and amateur photographers from across the U.S. and Canada to send in striking snaps of any bird species that they have captured throughout the past year. 

This year’s competition added two new awards: the Female Bird Prize and Video Prize. The Female Bird Prize was introduced to draw attention to female birds, which are ‘often overlooked and underappreciated’ in both bird photography and conservation. While the new video category aims to showcase the unique ways birds behave and interact with their environments. 

The awe-inspiring photographs feature a range of common and rare birds – including a Peregrine Falcon, Great Gray Owl, and the Northern Cardinal (pictured above), which took home the ‘Professional Prize.’

In contrast to recent years, judges noticed that most of the winning photographs were taken by bird-watchers working close to home. Which they said is ‘a reflection of the many ways that birds provided solace during the challenging and restrictive conditions brought on by the pandemic.’

Judges from the nonprofit – which is based out of New York City and focused on bird conservation – sifted through 8,770 entries and 261 videos to decide on the eight finalists and five honorable mentions below.