Macaulay Library’s Best Bird Photos 2024

There are greater than 50 million images within the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library archive. Listed here are a number of the finest from the previous yr.

From the Winter 2024 challenge of Residing Hen journal. Subscribe now. In case you like this picture essay, you’ll additionally take pleasure in last year’s Best of Macaulay essay.

For our 2024 picture essay we’re celebrating great images in 5 themes: the high-speed motion of Thrill of the Chase, a have a look at our avian neighbors with Birds in Built Environments, a sampler platter of meals varieties with Feeding Time, spectacular poses in Birds Never Cease to Amaze, and a peek at a number of the world’s rarest birds with Rare Glimpses. Within the ultimate part, we are saying thank you to all the photographers who make the Macaulay Library archive such a uniquely wealthy useful resource.

Thrill of the Chase

As a visible catalog of the life histories of greater than 10,000 avian species, the Macaulay Library incorporates dramatic photos that present a uncommon look into how birds work together with perceived foes—similar to an egret jockeying with an elephant seal for area on the seaside—and dependable prey, similar to a spring cloud of bugs pierced by a sallying Yellow-rumped Warbler.

a white, thin bird with a long neck jumps away from a sea lion. — A Yellow Thornbill mobs a Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo in Australia. *Photograph by Martin Anderson / Macaulay Library.*

A small black and red bird flies after a large white and russet-orange larger bird. — A Yellow Thornbill mobs a Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo in Australia. *Photograph by Martin Anderson / Macaulay Library.*

Hundreds of birds fly at sunset over a dark city. — Purple Martins fill the sky in Brazos, Texas. *Photograph by Jonathan Taffet / Macaulay Library.*

Birds in Constructed Environments

Macaulay Library photos present spectacular proof that cities might be stuffed with birdlife—with images of iconic species nesting, roosting, and migrating from Rome to Kathmandu to the grounds of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Photographer Jonathan Taffet captured a picture of Purple Martins swarming above the Texas A&M College campus. “It was an incredible sight to behold,” he says, “much more wonderful that this was not in some nationwide wildlife refuge or state park, however on a campus traversed by 70,000 college students.”

The head of a white bird with a yellow bill with an ancient urban background. — A Yellow-legged Gull with the domes and rooftops of Rome within the background. *Photograph by Christoph Moning / Macaulay Library.*

A gray bird with spotted neck and shoulders perches on a pipe. — A Yellow-legged Gull with the domes and rooftops of Rome within the background. *Photograph by Christoph Moning / Macaulay Library.*

A iridescent green hummingbird with a super long bill uses it to gather nectar from a flower. — A Sword-billed Hummingbird’s spectacular invoice reaches nectar in a flower, in Ecuador. *Photograph by Jeff Hapeman / Macaulay Library.*

Feeding Time

Many Macaulay Library images function anxious nestlings awaiting meals or an grownup chowing down, offering scientists with imagery to review chicken diets. Photographer Steven Meisel documented the supply of damselflies to Tree Swallow nestlings at a pollinator backyard close to St. Paul, Minnesota. “The mother and father had been very busy feeding the 2 hatchlings,” he says, “about each 5 minutes.“

A close up of a food exchange at a nest cavity between two white and dark indigo birds, — A Tree Swallow delivers an insect to its cavity nest. *Photograph by Steven Meisel / Macaulay Library.*

A bird sits on the water and gulps down a fish into its giant pouch — A Tree Swallow delivers an insect to its cavity nest. *Photograph by Steven Meisel / Macaulay Library.*

*Rainbow-bearded Thornbill in Colombia by Heiler Uribe / Macaulay Library.*

Birds By no means Stop to Amaze

Birds generally do the weirdest issues. When photographers are there to catch these uncommon moments—just like the inconceivable interplay of a Dunlin standing atop a Willet—they unlock new details about chicken species. Sharing these distinctive images with the Macaulay Library helps to construct a sturdy archive of little-known chicken behaviors.

A stripy bird in thick reeds looks at the camera with its bill upwards. — *Least Bittern* *by Matt Felperin / Macaulay Library.*

Two like-colored beige/brown birds, one perched on the other, look the same but are different sizes. — *Least Bittern* *by Matt Felperin / Macaulay Library.*

A green bird with a green bill, purple patch behind the eye, and black face markings, starts on a forest floor. — A Sumatran Floor-Cuckoo in Indonesia—one among simply 17 images of this species within the Macaulay archive. *Photograph by JJ Harrison / Macaulay Library.*

Uncommon Glimpses

A number of the most prized images within the Macaulay Library are photos of the world’s most reclusive and cryptic birds. Photograph documentation places a face to the names of those uncommon and susceptible species, which helps gas the trigger for his or her safety and conservation.

A chubby black-brown bird with a sharp bill stands in rocks. — The Inaccessible Island Rail is the smallest flightless chicken on the earth. There are solely two images of this species within the Macaulay archive. *Photograph by Brian Gratwicke / Macaulay Library.*

A brown-winged bird with a gray head, white chin and yellow abdomen perches on a branch and is almost hidden by the plant's leaves. — The Inaccessible Island Rail is the smallest flightless chicken on the earth. There are solely two images of this species within the Macaulay archive. *Photograph by Brian Gratwicke / Macaulay Library.*

Thank You, Photographers

Photograph by picture, chicken track by chicken track, the Macaulay Library has grown because of the gracious contributions of birders world wide sharing their photos, sound recordings, and movies. Because of this, the Macaulay Library is a world ornithology useful resource for the world, serving to to additional analysis and conservation.

Yearly, scientific journals publish a whole bunch of analysis papers primarily based on analyses of audio recordings, images, and movies from the Macaulay Library. For instance, scientists in Peru used the Macaulay Library to raised perceive the impacts of plastic on seabirds by assessing images of birds entangled or trapped in plastic. Their outcomes had been printed final yr in the journal Environmental Conservation. Contributions from the worldwide neighborhood of birders are making a distinction and enhancing our understanding of birds and their environments. None of this could be potential with out the generosity and dedication of contributors to the archive.

Beneath are simply a number of the greater than 40 photographers featured on this article. From everybody on the Macaulay Library and Cornell Lab of Ornithology, thanks to your time and efforts; we will’t wait to see all that we’ll obtain collectively in 2024.