Once-in-a-Lifetime Bird in Flight Eclipse Photo Wins Bird Photographer of the Year

Photographers worldwide entered over 25,000 photos into this 12 months’s Bird Photographer of the Year competitors, and Canadian wildlife and nature photographer Liron Gertsman took the grand prize and £3,000 in money for his unimaginable portrait of a frigatebird silhouetted towards final 12 months’s whole photo voltaic eclipse.

Regular PetaPixel readers might acknowledge Gertsman’s award-winning shot, as we interviewed Gertsman for a characteristic story in April 2024 to find out about his years of preparation, how he captured the shot, and why he traveled from Canada all the way in which to Mexico for the eclipse.

This is a picture I’ve wished to get for an extended, very long time,” Gertsman instructed PetaPixel over the cellphone after getting back from Mexico with a reminiscence card stuffed with unimaginable eclipse photographs. “[A bird in flight in front of the eclipse] has been a dream shot in my mind.”

“I spent well over a year of planning to capture my dream of a bird in front of the total solar eclipse,” Gertsman tells Bird Photographer of the Year. “I enlisted the help of a boat to position myself near some islets off Mazatlán that were frequented by seabirds. As the moon uncovered the sun’s edge at the end of totality, I captured this image during the eclipse phase known as the ‘diamond ring’ — a moment that lasts mere seconds.”

“Exceptional bird photography takes technical excellence, artistic vision, and dedication,” explains Bird Photographer of the Year Director Will Nicholls. “When everything comes together, you get a spectacular image like this one.”

For many extra particulars about how Gertsman captured this successful picture and lots of extra off the coast of Mexico throughout 2024’s “Great North American Eclipse,” make sure to learn PetaPixel‘s feature, “How a Photographer Captured His Spectacular Dream Eclipse Photo.” Gertsman is an exceptionally talented and inspiring photographer.

Young Bird Photographer of the Year 2025 — Tomasz Michalski

Alongside Gertsman’s general grand prize, the Bird Photographer of the Year contest additionally names a “Young Bird Photographer of the Year.” The 2025 winner is Polish teenager Tomasz Michalski, who additionally received for a silhouetted picture of a chicken. In Michalski’s case, the image depicts a black vulture, with the chicken’s head and a part of its torso and wings occupying a good portion of the black-and-white body.

Bird Photographer of the Year 2025 Category Winners

The competitors, which partnered this 12 months with Birds on the Brink to assist help chicken and wildlife conservation efforts, additionally contains an assortment of classes: Best Portrait, Bird Behavior, Birds within the Environment, Birds in Flight, Black and White, Urban Birds, Conservation (Single Image), and Creative Perspectives. Gertsman received the “Birds in Flight” class and Michalski received the 15-17 Years part of the youth competitors, so their photos are omitted beneath.

Best Portrait

Bird Behavior

Birds within the Environment

Birds in Flight

Black and White

Creative Perspectives

Urban Birds

Conservation (Single Image)

There are additionally winners throughout three youth classes, divided by age vary. Michalski received the 15-17 Years Old class, so his picture just isn’t included beneath.

All the awarded photos, together with silver and gold award winners for every primary class and particular class winners, are featured in a hardcover images e book by Princeton University Press. The e book is available now on the Bird Photographer of the Year website for £35.

Inspired chicken photographers are inspired to enter the 2026 Bird Photographer of the Year competitors, which is now open.

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Image credit: Bird Photographer of the Year. All photographers are credited within the particular person picture captions.