The lives of untamed birds are remarkably advanced and intriguing. As they go about discovering meals, attracting mates, elevating younger, evading predators, and generally migrating throughout continents, every form reveals off its personal distinctive galaxy of behaviors. A scientist who begins to review one fowl species could discover, time after time, that each new discovery results in extra questions. And for individuals who get pleasure from watching all birds, the fascinations are limitless.
Some avian behaviors are fleeting, over straight away, however expert photographers captured many such actions for this yr’s Audubon Photography Awards. Check out these examples, after which when you haven’t but, be sure you see the winners of the picture awards for 2025, together with the honorable mentions and our annual gallery of Top 100 photos. And if you find yourself feeling impressed by this superb photos, the 2026 Audubon Photography Awards at the moment are open for entry.
Thanks For All the Fish (above)
Seabirds that eat fish acquire them in numerous methods. Brown Pelicans plunge-dive from the air into the water, scoop up an enormous pouchful of water containing just a few fish, then drain the water out the aspect of the invoice earlier than swallowing the fish. Brown Noddies, sleek tropical terns, normally fly low over the water, swooping right down to delicately choose up prey on the water’s floor. But within the Galapagos, noddies have realized a better tactic: Stay shut and snatch up any fish that escape whereas the massive birds are draining water from their invoice pouches. The noddies have a cushty place to take a seat whereas they wait, and the pelicans don’t appear to thoughts.
I Got You Something
Most Mourning Dove nests look woefully flimsy—as in the event that they have been informal affairs, carelessly thrown collectively. But the truth is, a mated pair works collectively to construct this humble construction, utilizing an environment friendly system. Once a basis of some twigs has been laid, the feminine settles down within the middle of it whereas the male flies off to seek out extra supplies. When he returns with one other twig or rootlet or vine tendril, usually he stands on the feminine’s again whereas presenting it to her. The feminine takes his new discover and works it into the rising nest. Despite their slapdash nests and their behavior of elevating solely two younger per brood, Mourning Doves are amongst our most plentiful birds.
Starling Wars
For birds that nest in holes in timber, housing shortages loom as potential threats. Members of the woodpecker household, just like the Northern Flicker, can excavate their very own holes. But that’s no assure of a secure house, as a result of different cavity-nesting birds could attempt to steal these spots. For the sparkle, a frequent offender is the European Starling. This invasive non-native fowl could be very aggressive, usually succeeding in driving a flicker pair away from a newly accomplished nest cavity. Some researchers have discovered that starlings took over greater than 60 p.c of the sparkle nests inside a examine space. The sparkles can dig new holes for themselves, in fact, however the delay could trigger them to boost fewer younger.
Me First!
Widespread in open habitats in South America, the little Picui Ground Dove additionally adapts readily to cities and cities. Like different pigeons and doves, adults of this species feed their younger with “crop milk,” a thick, protein-rich secretion from the liner of the higher a part of their alimentary tract. When simply hatched, the nestling doves obtain this fluid in pure kind; as they develop, it contains an growing proportion of seeds. The dad and mom proceed to feed them this manner for a number of days after they depart the nest. In this picture, two just lately fledged Picui Ground Doves are insistently vying for consideration (and feeding) from the beleaguered grownup within the middle.
Practice Prey
For any fowl of prey, the primary few months of life could be difficult. It takes time to grasp the talents wanted to seize residing, transferring prey, and the younger predators could usually go hungry throughout the studying interval. Young Red-tailed Hawks proceed to get nearly all their meals from their dad and mom for not less than 4 weeks after they depart the nest, and it could be six to seven weeks earlier than they’ve notable success in catching their very own prey—largely rodents and different small creatures. In the meantime, they hone their strikes by diving on sticks, rocks, and different objects. This younger Red-tail isn’t going to eat this apple, however selecting it up and carrying it supplies priceless observe.
Brilliant Bills
Puffins are most well-known for his or her massive, colourful payments. These huge honkers have their sensible aspect: When an grownup Tufted Puffin is flying again to feed its single younger within the nest burrow, it might carry a number of small fishes per bill-load, often greater than 20 at a time. But the dimensions and colours of the invoice additionally perform as ornament for the mating season. The invoice appears to be like smaller and darker throughout the winter, as a result of some colourful outer sheaths are shed in fall, rising again in spring. These two adults, sporting their summer season greatest, are engaged in a courtship conduct referred to as billing (appropriately sufficient), by which the female and male face one another and rub their payments collectively repeatedly.
Culture Clash
Sanderlings lead a double life. Their breeding vary spans the intense north, nearly completely above the Arctic Circle. But earlier than summer season’s finish, these pale little sandpipers forsake the tundra and head south to spend many of the yr alongside sandy seashores everywhere in the world. On the central coast of Chile, this Sanderling had simply caught some selection invertebrate when it additionally caught the eye of a younger Brown-hooded Gull. Like many gulls, this species of southern South America is adaptable and opportunistic in its feeding habits, commonly chasing different birds to steal their meals. In this case, the photographer stories that the Sanderling managed to flee with its prize.
Limited Real Estate
Ducks and woodpeckers are two fowl teams which may appear unlikely to come back in battle. But for the Acorn Woodpecker and Wood Duck, in sure conditions, clashes are nearly inevitable. Colonies of Acorn Woodpeckers harvest acorns by the lots of, stashing them in tiny holes drilled in lifeless wooden, and fiercely defend these shops towards all potential thieves. Wood Ducks aren’t agile sufficient to raid these arboreal larders, however they go to the treetops for a unique purpose: Unlike different geese, they place their nests in tree cavities, normally far above the bottom. This pair, searching for a web site for his or her subsequent nest, occurred to land close to one of many Acorn Woodpeckers’ treasured meals shops, drawing a right away response from the house owners.
Gotta Be In Here Somewhere
The rail household encompasses two very several types of water birds: typical rails, which run round in marshes like slender chickens, and coots, normally seen swimming and appearing very very similar to geese. The Common Gallinule is someplace in between— extra aquatic than rails, extra terrestrial than coots. The gallinule within the picture has its head buried within the stump of a California fan palm, and it’s troublesome to say precisely what it’s doing. It may need been searching for meals (the species has a assorted weight loss plan together with seeds, snails, and bugs), however because the photographer instructed, it additionally might have been testing a attainable nest web site. Occasionally, gallinules nest atop stumps or different raised objects.
Get Off My Lawn
Until just a few a long time in the past, the vireo household and the American warbler household have been regarded as shut family members, with warblers coming instantly after vireos on the official checklists. More current genetic research have proven they aren’t carefully associated in any respect. Their superficial similarities replicate their comparable existence, as small songbirds that commonly glean tiny bugs from foliage. This aggressive Warbling Vireo is perhaps reacting to some instinctive sense that the Yellow Warbler is a possible rival for meals. An easier and extra possible rationalization is that many wild birds are simply naturally feisty, generally chasing or harassing one another for no explicit purpose.
Strange Birdfellows
Crested Caracaras and Turkey Vultures are totally unrelated, they usually look it, however they’re usually discovered collectively. Caracaras are odd members of the falcon household, feeding on all kinds of small, slow-moving prey, however a serious merchandise on their menu is carrion—the identical lifeless animals relished by vultures. From Florida and the Southwest south by the American tropics, wherever vultures have gathered at carrion, a Crested Caracara is prone to be part of them. As a extra aggressive fowl, the caracara can dominate just a few vultures and push them away; if there are too many to dominate, it slips in and feeds quietly amongst them, benefiting from the vultures’ better capability to tear open powerful carcasses.
Clash of Titans
Bald Eagles are absolutely able to being mighty hunters. Much of the time, nevertheless, they act as scavengers, feasting on carrion or lifeless fish, placing their warrior instincts to work by preventing over scraps with different eagles. In this picture, two eagles conflict over an elk carcass in Montana. The darker fowl, a juvenile Bald Eagle lower than one yr outdated, seems to be displacing a white-headed grownup, suggesting that age isn’t any benefit in such an encounter. Female eagles are bigger than males, and this can be a younger feminine pushing an grownup male. Meanwhile, a Black-billed Magpie, slipping in to steal some morsels, properly chooses to get out of the way in which.
Can’t Touch This
Although males of a number of North American hummingbirds put on strong iridescent colours on the throat, solely the smallest species has a sample of stripes there. The magenta stripes of the male Calliope Hummingbird look mildly ornamental more often than not, however they play an enormous position in courtship. Like many bigger hummers, the male Calliope performs aerial shows in breeding season, together with hovering and diving, partly to drive away rival males. When performing for a feminine, although, he hovers in entrance of her with a loud buzzing hum, splaying his throat stripes out to the fullest. If she’s sufficiently impressed, the 2 will mate. Then she goes off to construct a nest and lift younger, whereas he goes searching for one other fling.
Tender Moments
Black Vultures could have spooky reputations, however they’re really clever, gregarious creatures with robust social bonds. When at relaxation, they spend a lot time preening and cleansing their feathers—or preening one another. This twin exercise, referred to as allopreening, could contain members of a mated pair, or guardian and offspring, or siblings from the identical brood. Each fowl concentrates on the opposite’s head and neck, areas that the person can’t attain for itself. These two Black Vultures have been perched on a metropolis rooftop in Colombia on a quiet morning, rigorously tending to one another. The higher vulture has momentarily closed its nictitating membrane, the translucent “third eyelid” that helps to guard a fowl’s eyes.
