The Being Blue competition was held in March-April 2018.  For this competition we asked you to submit pictures of birds which have the word "blue" in their species name (a fairly limited list) OR birds which have blue in their plumage or other features; this extends the list of available species considerably - parrots and kingfishers come immediately to mind, or even Pied Cormorants - so you should be able to find something suitable fairly easily.  We will NOT accept photos of Superb Fairy-wrens for this competition; they are the most common species in our galleries, and they were the subject of a special competition several years ago.

The results of member voting for the top 5 images (or more in the case of a tie) in each category are listed here.  In line with many other bird/wildlife photo competitions, we present the results in the following manner: the Winner is the image which received the most votes; and we also show the next four highest placed images, rating them as Highly Commended if they received at least 90% of the votes for the winning image, and Commended for scores less than that.

Advanced Level – Being Blue

This category attracted 51 entries, from 17 photographers. 46 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Southern Emu-wren, by Wilson Lennard (Image no longer available)
• Commended - Sacred Kingfisher, by Brian O'Leary (Image ID 30237)
• Commended - Blue-billed Duck, by Paul Thorogood (Image ID 30337)
• Commended - Olive-backed Sunbird, by Brian O'Leary (Image ID 30235)
• Commended - Indian Peafowl, by Con Boekel (Image no longer available)
• Commended - Southern Cassowary, by Tim Van Leeuwen (Image ID 30192)

Intermediate Level – Being Blue

This category attracted 94 entries, from 33 photographers. 49 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Crimson Rosella, by Bill Harding (Image ID 30265)
• Commended - White-winged Fairy-wren, by Bill Harding (Image ID 30263)
• Commended - Forest Kingfisher, by Sandy Castle (Image ID 30113)
• Commended - Little Pied Cormorant, by Doug Castle (Image ID 30031)
• Commended - Mulga Parrot, by Hayley Alexander (Image ID 30339)

Entry Level – Being Blue

This category attracted 44 entries, from 15 photographers. 47 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Southern Cassowary, by Deanne Gaskill (Image ID 30360)
• Commended - Rainbow Lorikeet, by Jillian Graham (Image ID 30299)
• Commended - Purple Swamphen, by McKinley Moens (Image no longer available)
• Commended - Mulga Parrot, by Deanne Gaskill (Image ID 30361)
• Commended - Rainbow Lorikeet, by McKinley Moens (Image no longer available)