News

Audubon Announces 2023 Audubon Photography Awards Winners

Premiere North American bird photography competition features stunning photos and videos from professionals, amateurs, and young people.
Words by National Audubon Society
Published June 21, 2023

NEW YORK – Today the National Audubon Society announced the winners of the 2023 Audubon Photography Awards. Now in its fourteenth year, the contest features stunning work from professionals, amateurs, and young people that highlights the beauty of birds and the joy of capturing them through photographs and videos. Judges awarded eight prizes across five divisions, with winning entries and honorable mentions chosen from 2,200 entrants from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and 8 Canadian provinces and territories.  

For the third year, Audubon awarded the Female Bird Prize and the Video Prize. The Female Bird Prize showcases the beauty of female birds, which are often overlooked and underappreciated in birding, bird photography, and science, and the Video Prize celebrates the dynamic movement and unique behaviors of birds interacting with their habitats. The long-standing Fisher Prize recognizes the most creative approach in photographing birds, combined with technical expertise and an original composition. 

Audubon’s climate science report Survival by Degrees reveals that two-thirds of North American birds are threatened by extinction from climate change, including species featured in this year’s Audubon Photography Awards like the Dunlin, Short-eared Owl, and Baltimore Oriole. Learn more about how climate change will impact birds in your communities by entering your zip code into Audubon’s Birds and Climate Visualizer. 

Award winners and honorable mentions will be featured in the Summer 2023 issue of Audubon magazine.  

Grand Prize Winner 

Two pigeons face left in profile, each with one orange eye in view against a black background. One bird is preening the other, its bill buried in gray, green, and purple iridescent feathers.

Rock Pigeons. Photo: Liron Gertsman/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Grand Prize Winner 

Professional Winner 

An Atlantic Puffin sits on the edge of a craggy cliffside, its head turned to the left, its white breast in sharp contrast to the gray background. Lime green algae and small purple wildflowers drape the cliff, breaking up the otherwise dark image.

Atlantic Puffin. Photo: Shane Kalyn/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Professional Winner 

Amateur Winner 

A Chinstrap Penguin, wings outstretched, dives from an iceberg. Head down, its bill is nearly touching the water’s surface. In the background, a white and blue iceberg is capped with fresh white snow. Deeply etched lines on the iceberg’s sides appear like hashtags behind the black bird.

Chinstrap Penguin. Photo: Karen Blackwood/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Amateur Winner 

Plants For Birds Winner 

A gray Verdin with a yellow head and a small rust-colored patch on its wing stands in profile on a broken cacti branch that’s white, brown, and green. The bird carries a pale green caterpillar in its bill.

Verdin and cane cholla. Photo: Linda Scher/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Plants For Birds Winner 

Youth Winner 

A Dunlin in profile appears to have jumped from the rocks to avoid an incoming wave. The bird’s wings are behind its body, its feet just above the rock in front of a background of water droplets from the surf.

Dunlin. Photo: Kieran Barlow/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Youth Winner 

Video Winner

Short-eared Owl. Video: Steven Chu/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Video Winner 

Fisher Prize Winner 

A Brown Pelican at the top of the frame sits in the water, its wings pulled behind its body. In the dark water below is the crescent silhouette of a shark, its snout nearly touching the pelican.

Brown Pelican. Photo: Sunil Gopalan/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Fisher Prize Winner 

Female Bird Prize Winner 

A bright yellow female Baltimore Oriole with a clump of thin light strands held in her bill perches at the end of a branch and faces to the right in the frame. The strands billow around her, slightly out of focus, in front of a blurred green background.

Baltimore Oriole. Photo: Sandra M. Rothenberg/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Female Bird Prize Winner 

Professional Honorable Mention 

A Northern Hawk Owl looks directly into the camera as it perches at the tip of a frost-covered tree. Dark pinecones on the bare branches stand out against a white background, mirroring the pattern of the owl’s dark breast feathers.

Northern Hawk Owl. Photo: Liron Gertsman/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Professional Honorable Mention 

Amateur Honorable Mention 

A Reddish Egret stands in shallow water against a blurred yellow background, its body facing left and its wings open behind it. A small fish and water droplets are suspended in the air in front of the bird’s open bill.

Reddish Egret. Photo: Nathan Arnold /Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Amateur Honorable Mention 

Plants For Birds Honorable Mention 

Thousands of Tree Swallows sit on two cypress snags in a swamp, looking like leaves. One tree is larger in the foreground and the other is smaller in the background. More birds fly around the trees, their dark forms in contrast to the purple and blue sky.

Tree Swallows and bald cypress. Photo: Vicki Santello/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Plants For Birds Honorable Mention 

Youth Honorable Mention 

A male Green-winged Teal sits on top of a female in the water, his bill appearing to push the female’s head down. His brown and green head stands out against an otherwise gray background with blurred snowflakes around the frame.

Green-winged Teal. Photo: James Fatemi/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Youth Honorable Mention 

Video Honorable Mention 

Osprey. Video: Steven Chu/Audubon Photography Awards/2023 Video Honorable Mention 

2023 Contest Prizes: 
Grand Prize: $5,000 USD 
Professional Prize: $2,500 USD 
Amateur Prize: $2,500 USD 
Plants for Birds Prize: $2,500 USD 
Video Prize: $2,500 USD 
Female Bird Prize: $1,000 USD 
Fisher Prize: $1,000 USD 
Youth Prize: Six days at Audubon's Hog Island Audubon Camp for teens during the 2024 season 

The 2023 panel of judges: 

  • Sabine Meyer, photography director, National Audubon Society 
  • Preeti Desai, senior director of social media & storytelling, National Audubon Society 
  • Melissa Hafting, conservation photographer and youth nature educator 
  • Morgan Heim, conservation photographer, filmmaker and adventurer 
  • Noppadol Paothong, nature/conservation photographer 
  • Marlene Pantin, partnerships manager, Plants for Birds, National Audubon Society 
  • Mike Fernandez, video producer, National Audubon Society 
  • Rina Miele, wildlife photographer and videographer 
  • Mick Thompson, wildlife photographer and videographer 
  • Karine Aigner, conservation photographer 
  • Founders of the Galbatross Project:  
    • Brooke Bateman, director of climate science, National Audubon Society  
    • Stephanie Beilke, conservation manager, conservation science, National Audubon Society  
    • Martha Harbison, senior network content editor, National Audubon Society  
    • Purbita Saha, member, Bergen County Audubon Society, and former Audubon magazine editor   
    • Joanna Wu, PhD student at the University of California, Los Angeles 

All photos and videos are judged based on technical quality, originality, and artistic merit and must adhere to Audubon’s Guide to Ethical Bird Photography and Videography. For more information, please visit the official contest rules.  

To learn more about Audubon’s Plants for Birds program and Native Plants Database, please visit https://www.audubon.org/native-plants.  

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About Audubon  
The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. Audubon works throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation. State programs, nature centers, chapters, and partners give Audubon an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire, and unite diverse communities in conservation action. A nonprofit conservation organization since 1905, Audubon believes in a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Learn more at www.audubon.org and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @audubonsociety.   

Media Contact:  
Megan Moriarty, megan.moriarty@audubon.org