The best photos from the 2017 Bird Photographer of the Year

Winner, Bird Photographer of the Year 2017. Feeding Flamingos by Alejandro Prieto Rojas.

In recent years, bird photography has picked up in popularity. There are scores of Facebook or Flickr groups, Twitter pages, forums, anything you could wish for. With that in mind, Nature Photographers Ltd and the British Trust for Ornithology kickstarted the Bird Photographer of the Year competition three years ago. This time, the winner was Alejandro Prieto Rojas for his stunning photo (above) of flamingos feeding their offspring at Río Lagartos in Mexico.

Birds in Flight, Gold. Australian Pelican landing on water by Bret Charman.

Photos were split into six categories: Best Portrait, Birds in the Environment, Attention to Detail, Bird Behavior, Birds in Flight, and finally, Garden and Urban Birds. All entries were impressive, we’ll only present some of our favorites here. You can see a full gallery of winners here.

Snowy Owl by Markus Varesvuo. Snowy owls are native to Arctic regions in North America and Eurasia. Juvenile snowy owls have black feathers until they turn white.

Birds in the Environment, silver. Crane flock misty lake by Piotr Chara. Cranes are opportunistic feeders. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back. Cranes live on all continents except Antarctica and South America.

An Andean condor ( Vultur gryphus) circles the thermals looking for prey in its dramatic habitat of Torres del Paine national park, Chile; by Ben Hall.

Attention to Detail, Silver. Grey Heron looking under wing by Ahmad Alessa.

Cormorant wing by Tom Hines. Cormorants have relatively short wings due to their need for economical movement underwater, and consequently, have the highest flight costs of any bird.