Here Are The 31 Finalists Of 2021 Bird Photographer Of The Year Awards

Last summer, while on a family holiday in Croatia, I spent time photographing shags. One of my goals was to take a photo of them underwater, but it was a lot harder than I first thought. Although they didn't care about me, when they were on land, they were much more cautious when they were underwater. I didn't want to bother them, so my tactic was patience. I waited in the water for hours, next to the rock where they were roosting and from which I assumed they would jump and submerge. But in contrast to my expectations, I found they swam away to find a group of fish, and only then would they dive. I was starting to lose patience and almost gave up. However, eventually, my persistence paid off: encouraged to dive by a nearby swimmer, one of the shags jumped into the water in front of me and dived a few meters. I followed the bird under the water and took a few pictures of it almost blindly. I was very happy with the result. My favorite thing about this image is that you can see the sparkly spot lit by the setting sun where the bird submerged.

Southern giant petrels happily scavenge on dead seals or penguins or any other dead animal. Generally, they are opportunistic birds, although they will sometimes also kill the birds themselves—even an adult king penguin, the carcass in this picture. The petrels are not afraid of people and so I carefully placed my camera inside the carcass of the penguin and waited for the bird to start eating. When it comes to food and feeding, southern giant petrels are possessive birds, and this one is stretching its wings to ward off other petrels in the neighborhood.

This photo was taken on the bird cliffs of Hornøya Island in Norway, back in April 2018. It shows two puffins that started a brawl that continued down the snowy slope right in front of me. My goal for this trip was to try to get some images of fighting puffins on snow and in that regard, my quest was a success. I was really lucky and my patience and persistence paid off. These two puffins battled for several minutes, with feathers and snow flying everywhere. It was a fantastic experience—for me, if not for the puffins.

Is there any food left? In this image, a hungry juvenile shag literally dives down its mother's throat for more fish rather than waiting for it to be fully regurgitated. It was taken on the Farne Islands, one of the most accessible 'Puffin Islands' in the UK. A short boat trip from Seahouses in Northumberland drops you into another world of puffins, guillemots, and ravenous shags. Spending time with this family, I managed to get some great behavioral shots. The Farne Islands aren't just about puffins!

I took this photograph of a fishing cormorant on a lake that was a 30-minute drive from home. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, I had a lot of time on my hands and I went to this spot almost every day. Eventually, persistence paid off, and I was able to get this close-up, detailed image. Although the lake had up to 15 cormorants feeding on it, photographing them was a matter of luck because you never knew where they might appear next, or whether they would have a fish in their beaks. After I took this photo, I never saw another one hunting in this spot again.

As night falls, Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour is brightly lit by billboard lights and street lamps. Here, a black-crowned night heron has found a fishing perch on the harbourfront. Used to the presence of humans, its red eyes stay fixated on the streetlight-lit water, looking for its next meal. I was out for a walk when I noticed the bird next to a pier on the harbourfront, I made my way down to the water by hopping from rock to rock, and tried to get as low as possible to frame the bird against the bokeh created by the city lights.

This image shows a bar-tailed godwit, photographed in the late evening on my local beach at Gijón in northern Spain. Because it was really dark, I was able to crawl towards the godwit without causing any disturbance. This beach is a good place for migrant shorebirds, particularly in autumn, and they always provide excellent photographic opportunities. The wet sand framing the godwit looks like it is on fire.

Southern rockhopper penguins are among the most resilient birds I have spent any time with and watching their exploits as they return from fishing expeditions to take over nesting duties is alarming and awe-inspiring in equal measure. On this particular evening at one of their colonies in the Falkland Islands, I had tentatively made my way down cliffs whose ascent and descent the birds made look so easy, and awaited the returning birds. I knew that preening was always the first priority on reaching the safety of land and, given the orientation of the site, that a silhouette image might be possible. I stopped down my aperture to help highlight the subtle lens flare on this bird as it stood on a rock. As the penguin bent over in the course of preening, it seemed as if he was bowing to the sun itself.

Here we see two black-tailed godwits engaged in a fierce territorial battle, the location for this being an area of prime habitat in India’s beautiful Manglajodi wetland. Why were they fighting? As they are seasonal migratory visitors to my country and don’t nest here, the fight obviously had nothing to do with establishing and protecting breeding territories. Instead, each bird was fighting to maintain its predominance over feeding grounds and trying to fend off rivals who would compete for the same food. Captured at the moment of contact, both godwits were attacking each other with their long beaks and gangly legs.

Squacco herons are migrant summer visitors to Italy and are found on well-vegetated ponds and wetlands, habitats that satisfy their dietary requirements for fish and amphibians. Although inclined to stand motionless for extended periods of time while looking for prey, they are capable of bursts of activity when the need arises. Such was the case with this individual and, captured in flight, it resembles a goalkeeper trying to make the ‘save’ of his life.

Nowadays, Amsterdam’s grey herons are celebrity scavengers and have become part of the scenery and a tourist attraction in their own right. Given their predilection for fish, it is hardly surprising that their antics and interactions are most in evidence when the market fishmonger stalls are closing. As they wait, the herons pick through the skips for scraps discarded during the day. Altercations are common as a dozen or so grey herons compete for the slim pickings on offer.