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 check one chicken species might discover, time after time, that each new discovery results in extra questions. And for many who get pleasure from watching all birds, the fascinations are countless.
Some avian behaviors are fleeting, over instantly, however expert photographers captured many such actions for this 12 months’s Audubon Images Awards. Take a look at these examples, after which for those who 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 images. And if you find yourself feeling impressed by this superb photos, the 2026 Audubon Images Awards at the moment are open for entry.
Thanks For All of the Fish (above)
Seabirds that eat fish acquire them in numerous methods. Brown Pelicans plunge-dive from the air into the water, scoop up a giant 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. However within the Galapagos, noddies have realized a neater tactic: Keep shut and snatch up any fish that escape whereas the large birds are draining water from their invoice pouches. The noddies have a cushty place to sit down whereas they wait, and the pelicans don’t appear to thoughts.
I Received You One thing
Most Mourning Dove nests look woefully flimsy—as in the event that they have been informal affairs, carelessly thrown collectively. However the truth is, a mated pair works collectively to construct this humble construction, utilizing an environment friendly system. As soon as a basis of some twigs has been laid, the feminine settles down within the heart of it whereas the male flies off to search 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. Regardless of their slapdash nests and their behavior of elevating solely two younger per brood, Mourning Doves are amongst our most considerable birds.
Starling Wars
For birds that nest in holes in bushes, housing shortages loom as potential threats. Members of the woodpecker household, just like the Northern Flicker, can excavate their very own holes. However that’s no assure of a secure area, as a result of different cavity-nesting birds might attempt to steal these spots. For the glint, a frequent wrongdoer is the European Starling. This invasive non-native chicken may 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 % of the glint nests inside a examine space. The sparkles can dig new holes for themselves, after all, however the delay might trigger them to boost fewer younger.
Me First!
Widespread in open habitats in South America, the little Picui Floor 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 mother and father proceed to feed them this manner for a number of days after they depart the nest. On this picture, two lately fledged Picui Floor Doves are insistently vying for consideration (and feeding) from the beleaguered grownup within the heart.
Apply Prey
For any chicken of prey, the primary few months of life may be difficult. It takes time to grasp the talents wanted to seize residing, transferring prey, and the younger predators might usually go hungry through the studying interval. Younger Pink-tailed Hawks proceed to get virtually all their meals from their mother and father for at the very least 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—principally rodents and different small creatures. Within the meantime, they hone their strikes by diving on sticks, rocks, and different objects. This younger Pink-tail isn’t going to eat this apple, however choosing it up and carrying it offers priceless follow.
Sensible Payments
Puffins are most well-known for his or her giant, colourful payments. These large honkers have their sensible aspect: When an grownup Tufted Puffin is flying again to feed its single younger within the nest burrow, it may well carry a number of small fishes per bill-load, often greater than 20 at a time. However the dimension and colours of the invoice additionally operate as ornament for the mating season. The invoice seems to be smaller and darker through the winter, as a result of some colourful outer sheaths are shed in fall, rising again in spring. These two adults, sporting their summer time finest, are engaged in a courtship conduct referred to as billing (appropriately sufficient), wherein the female and male face one another and rub their payments collectively repeatedly.
Tradition Conflict
Sanderlings lead a double life. Their breeding vary spans the intense north, virtually totally above the Arctic Circle. However earlier than summer time’s finish, these pale little sandpipers forsake the tundra and head south to spend many of the 12 months 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, recurrently chasing different birds to steal their meals. On this case, the photographer stories that the Sanderling managed to flee with its prize.
Restricted Actual Property
Geese and woodpeckers are two chicken teams that may appear unlikely to come back in battle. However for the Acorn Woodpecker and Wooden Duck, in sure conditions, clashes are virtually inevitable. Colonies of Acorn Woodpeckers harvest acorns by the a whole bunch, stashing them in tiny holes drilled in useless wooden, and fiercely defend these shops in opposition to all potential thieves. Wooden Geese are usually not agile sufficient to raid these arboreal larders, however they go to the treetops for a unique motive: Not like different geese, they place their nests in tree cavities, normally far above the bottom. This pair, in search of a website for his or her subsequent nest, occurred to land close to one of many Acorn Woodpeckers’ treasured meals shops, drawing a direct response from the homeowners.
Gotta Be In Right here Someplace
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 performing very very like geese. The Widespread 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 might need been on the lookout for meals (the species has a diverse food plan together with seeds, snails, and bugs), however because the photographer recommended, it additionally may have been trying out a potential nest website. Often, gallinules nest atop stumps or different raised objects.
Get Off My Garden
Till just a few a long time in the past, the vireo household and the American warbler household have been considered shut kinfolk, with warblers coming instantly after vireos on the official checklists. More moderen genetic research have proven they don’t seem to be carefully associated in any respect. Their superficial similarities mirror their comparable existence, as small songbirds that recurrently glean tiny bugs from foliage. This aggressive Warbling Vireo may be reacting to some instinctive sense that the Yellow Warbler is a possible rival for meals. An easier and extra possible clarification is that many wild birds are simply naturally feisty, generally chasing or harassing one another for no specific motive.
Unusual 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 useless animals relished by vultures. From Florida and the Southwest south by the American tropics, wherever vultures have gathered at carrion, a Crested Caracara is more likely to be a part of them. As a extra aggressive chicken, 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’ higher means to tear open powerful carcasses.
Conflict of Titans
Bald Eagles are absolutely able to being mighty hunters. A lot of the time, nevertheless, they act as scavengers, feasting on carrion or useless fish, placing their warrior instincts to work by combating over scraps with different eagles. On this picture, two eagles conflict over an elk carcass in Montana. The darker chicken, a juvenile Bald Eagle lower than one 12 months outdated, seems to be displacing a white-headed grownup, suggesting that age isn’t any benefit in such an encounter. Feminine eagles are bigger than males, and this can be a younger feminine pushing an grownup male. In the meantime, a Black-billed Magpie, slipping in to steal some morsels, properly chooses to get out of the best way.
Can’t Contact This
Though males of a number of North American hummingbirds put on stable 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 a giant function 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 on the lookout for one other fling.
Tender Moments
Black Vultures might have spooky reputations, however they’re truly 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, might contain members of a mated pair, or guardian and offspring, or siblings from the identical brood. Every chicken 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, fastidiously tending to one another. The higher vulture has momentarily closed its nictitating membrane, the translucent “third eyelid” that helps to guard a chicken’s eyes.
