Bird Behavior
“Fighting Coots” by Andy Parkinson features a pair of Common Coots (Fulica atra) fighting one another in a dominance dispute. Parkinson was in the right place (Derbyshire, UK) at the right time (just after sunrise on a cloudy day) when the cantankerous coots faced off in a watery tiff over territory.
Attention to Detail
“Wing Formation” by Tom Hines offers an in-depth look at the iridescent and complex wing of a Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). Hines snapped his award-winning shot in a place favored by both humans and animals: Hyde Park, in central London.
“We see lots of technically accomplished images and ‘nice’ portraits of attractive species,” stated Chris Packham, President of the BTO and head competition judge, “but what we are looking for as judges are those images which have an instant and enduring ‘wow’ factor. To have been gifted with so many of these ‘wow’ photos in the first two years of this competition is extraordinary, because photographing birds is enormously challenging.” That’s an ho-nest description of these winning photographers’ prodigious talon-t, to be sure! (via WENN)

