Member voting for the Best of 2019 competition, which closed for entries on 24^th February and for voting on 16^th March, has been analysed and the results for the top five images in each category are listed here.  This competition received excellent support from the membership, with 401 images entered across the 3 competition levels by 118 photographers.  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 – Best of 2019

This category attracted 132 entries, from 36 photographers. 50 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Musk Duck, by Jason Moore (Image ID 39021)
• Commended - Black-bellied Crimson Finch, by Mark Lethlean (Image ID 39152)
• Commended - Great Crested Grebe, by Jason Moore (Image ID 39027)
• Commended - Pied Stilt, by Jason Moore (Image ID 39017)
• Commended - Red-necked Avocet, by Tim Van Leeuwen (Image ID 38281)

Intermediate Level – Best of 2019

This category attracted 163 entries, from 49 photographers. 53 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Leaden Flycatcher, by Mary Wheeler (Image ID 38934)
• Commended - Ground Parrot, by Chris Young (Image ID 39147)
• Commended - Noisy Friarbird, by Mary Wheeler (Image ID 39186)
• Commended - Bar-breasted Honeyeater, by Chris Young (Image ID 39146)
• Commended - Pink Robin, by Andrew Browne (Image ID 39102)

Entry Level – Best of 2019

This category attracted 106 entries, from 33 photographers. 46 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, by David Tribe (Image ID 38713)
• Commended - Tawny Frogmouth, by Graham Gall (Image ID 38188)
• Commended - Welcome Swallow, by Mandy Watson (Image ID 38725)
• Commended - Hooded Plover, by Alex Rogers (Image ID 38697)
• Commended - Pacific Golden Plover, by Merrick Bailey (Image ID 38705)

Congratulations to all these photographers for their quality images.

It’s that time of the year again, when the committee reviews the achievements of our members during the past year and announces our 2019 award winners.

On behalf of the BirdLife Photography committee it gives me great pleasure to firstly announce our most prestigious award, the BirdLife Photography Annual Award.

This award is at the discretion of the committee and is presented to a BLP member who has excelled in the following three criteria:

• at least 24 high quality images submitted to the image galleries through the website during the calendar year,
• participates in at least 50% of the Current Competitions organised during the calendar year,
• actively contributes to at least one of a range of BirdLife Photography activities, events, project or resources that benefit our members (as determined by the Committee).

The 2019 BirdLife Photography Annual Award is presented to Con Boekel.

Con contributed 120 images (including several to the Science & Conservation gallery), entered all 4 competitions, and contributed to BLP as an image moderator and Mystery Reviewer; Con won the 2019 Tom Oliver Award with his photo essay “Bird photography for What?”

The award consists of a quality sliced crystal cylinder with a frosted white-on-crystal BLP logo and laser inscription, in a velvet presentation case.

Photo Competition Awards

Awards are presented to members who have achieved the top three scores in each competition level. Points are accrued from member votes and Mystery Reviewer judging across the year, for all four competitions. For details, see the About Us - BLP Awards page.

Advanced Level Competition

   Gold medal  – awarded to Bill Harding
   Silver medal  – awarded to Tim Van Leeuwen
   Bronze medal – awarded to Doug Castle
   Bronze medal  – awarded to Stephen Garth

Intermediate Level Competition

   Gold medal  – awarded to Con Duyvestyn
   Silver medal  – awarded to Gary King
   Bronze medal – awarded to Linda Joseph

Entry Level Competition

   Gold medal  – awarded to Jennifer Carr
   Silver medal  – awarded to Mary Wheeler
   Bronze medal – awarded to Graham Gall

Graham Cam,
President, BirdLife Photography

Best Photograph of the Year - Interchangeable Lens Camera

Australasian Gannet - Con Duyvestyn (Image ID 36862)

Best Photograph of the Year - Non-interchangeable Lens Camera

Nankeen Kestrel - Anna Browne (Image ID 33418)

The winners of these Photographs of the Year received a BirdLife Photography gold medal.

We have changed the size requirements for images which our members may submit to our galleries.  Since the start of 2019, the Advanced Level competition galleries have had a maximum image size of 1800 pixels for either width or height, together with a requirement that at least one of these dimensions meets this same size.  These requirements will remain unchanged.  All other galleries, except the Slides gallery and the Landscapes/Habitat/KBAs gallery, will now accept images up to 1800 pixels wide or high; there is also a minimum size requirement of at least 1400 pixels in one of these dimension - which means that all images must be at least 1400 pixels in either width or height.  We would encourage all members to submit images which meet the maximum size allowable for at least one dimension.  The maximum file size will be 2500 kB (approx. 2.5 MB).  The Landscapes/Habitat/KBAs gallery has a minimum width of 1680 pixels, to meet the preferred size (1680 x 995) for use on BirdLife Australia's website.  Images submitted to the Slides gallery must now be exactly 1400 x 450 pixels, with a maximum file size of 1000 kB (approx. 1 MB); the small variation previously allowed has been removed.

The Submit Photo page will not allow you to upload an image which does not meet these new requirements.  When you select a gallery on the Submit Photo page the limits are displayed together with the general information for the gallery, as in this example:

Some of you may have already noticed the major change introduced in our most recent website update, on 25^th February.  This allows you to scroll through full-size images in a set of images which you have chosen to view (e.g. all photos, a single gallery, a set of images from a search, ...); usually, this will start from the first image you click on in a page of thumbnail images.  When you hover your mouse over the full-size image, a narrow grey band with a small arrow symbol will appear over each side of the image (except for the first and last in the set, when only one band will appear); clicking on the left band will move to the previous image in the set, clicking on the right band will move to the next image.

A new version of BirdLife Australia's Working List of Australian Birds (BWL) has been released, and the species list used on this site has been updated to this version.  There are a number of changes, summarised here, and shown in detail on see the Resources-Taxonomic Changes page.  During this update, species names for existing images have been automatically updated where possible.

Twelve new species, all vagrants, have been added to the list.  They are Zoe's Imperial-Pigeon, Orange-fronted Fruit-dove, Silver-backed Needletail, Common Swift, Indian Cuckoo, Slaty-breasted Rail, Lesser Moorhen, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Temminck's Stint, Crow-billed Drongo, Kamchatka Leaf-warbler, and Tree Pipit.  The Species selection section of the Submit Photo page now identifies any species which is vagrant to Australia with a (V) suffix after the name.

Twenty-three species have had their common name changed.  These are:

• Red-bellied Pitta is now Papuan Pitta
• Cicadabird is now Common Cicadabird
• Frilled Monarch is now Frill-necked Monarch
• Great Reed-Warbler is now Oriental Reed-Warbler
• Yellow Wagtail is now Eastern Yellow Wagtail
• Northern Mallard is now Mallard
• Red Collared-Dove is now Red Turtle-Dove
• Pied Imperial-Pigeon is now Pied Imperial Pigeon
• Banded Fruit-Dove is now Black-banded Fruit-Dove
• Pied Cormorant is now Great Pied Cormorant
• Ringed Plover is now Common Ringed Plover
• Eastern Curlew is now Far Eastern Curlew
• Grey Phalarope is now Red Phalarope
• Common Noddy is now Brown Noddy
• Crested Tern is now Greater Crested Tern
• New Zealand Boobook is now Tasman Morepork
• Christmas Island Hawk-Owl is now Christmas Island Boobook
• Dollarbird is now Oriental Dollarbird
• Blue Bonnet is now Bluebonnet
• Spotted Catbird is now Black-eared Catbird
• Mangrove Grey Fantail is now Mangrove Fantail
• Black-billed Magpie is now Eurasian Magpie
• Yellow White-eye is now Australian Yellow White-eye

These species names have all been changed in all existing images during the update; no further action is required.

Forty species have had their scientific name changed.  For details of these, please see the Resources-Taxonomic Changes page.

Seventeen species have been split.  These are:

• Intermediate Egret has been split to Intermediate Egret and Plumed Egret.  The species seen in Australia is now known as Plumed Egret, and all existing images of Intermediate Egret have been automatically updated.  The split Intermediate Egret is a vagrant to Australia, and is therefore likely to be rarely seen and/or photographed here.
• Blue-faced Honeyeater has been split to Blue-faced Honeyeater and White-quilled Honeyeater
• White-naped Honeyeater has been split to White-naped Honeyeater and Gilbert's Honeyeater
• Black-chinned Honeyeater has been split to Black-chinned Honeyeater and Golden-backed Honeyeater
• White-lined Honeyeater has been split to White-lined Honeyeater and Kimberley Honeyeater
• Rufous Fieldwren has been split to Rufous Fieldwren and Western Fieldwren
• Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush has been split to Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush and Western Quail-thrush
• Cinnamon Quail-thrush has been split to Cinnamon Quail-thrush and Nullarbor Quail-thrush
• Crested Shrike-tit has been split to Northern Shrike-tit, Western Shrike-tit and Eastern Shrike-tit
• Grey Whistler has been split to Grey-headed Whistler and Brown Whistler
• Grey Butcherbird has been split to Grey Butcherbird and Silver-backed Butcherbird
• Rufous Fantail has been split to Rufous Fantail and Arafura Fantail
• Grey Fantail has been split to Grey Fantail and New Zealand Fantail
• Restless Flycatcher has been split to Restless Flycatcher and Paperbark Flycatcher
• Scarlet Robin has been split to Scarlet Robin and Norfolk Island Robin
• Lemon-bellied Flycatcher has been split to Lemon-bellied Flycatcher and Kimberley Flycatcher
• Crimson Finch has been split to Black-bellied Crimson Finch and White-bellied Crimson Finch

Existing images of the split species are now identified as a "complex".  You may amend the identification of any such images via the Photo Gallery-My Photos page; over time, the site moderators will also amend these identifications where possible from the image and location data.  Assignment of the split species to the new species will often be easy, as many of the split species occur in separate locations.

Our 2020 Photo Competitions for BirdLife Photography members will have the following themes:

1. Best of 2019.  Up to four of your best bird shots taken during 2019.
2. Finches and Chats.  Finches include all the birds within the family Weaver Finches (Estrildidae), detailed in the BWL taxonomy currently used on this website, plus the European Goldfinch and the European Greenfinch. Chats include the four species of Chat plus the Gibberbird.
3. Head and Bill Portrait.  The focus is on the head and bill but an appropriate amount of neck and upper body (minimum please) as a base for the head and bill is acceptable.  The challenge is to obtain sharpness and clarity with the identifiable features of the head and bill including those features that identify the species.
4. Reflections.  The reflection must be of the bird and will mainly be in water but could be in other reflective surfaces such as mirrors (eg. external mirrors on cars).  While many of the entries will be water-birds keep in mind that bush-birds go to water to drink early in the morning when the water is often still and ideal for reflection.  We have a number of such images in the BLP library ranging from cockatoos and parrots to small birds such as finches. The reflection must be recognisable as the bird that is the subject of the photograph.

Except for the Best of 2019 competition, all entries must have been taken within two years of the opening date of the competition.  The competition dates are now available, on the 2020 Competition Themes page.

Our October Newsletter contained an announcement of the Special Theme for the 2020 BirdLife Australia Photography Award competition, which is Australian Fairy-wrens, Emu-wrens and Grasswrens.  This much-loved Australasian bird family, the fairy-wrens, emu-wrens and grasswrens come in a wide range of stunning plumages. They are characterised by long legs, tiny bodies and long straight tails, and are always found in family groups. Many fairy-wrens are much loved features of our parks and gardens, while others, such as the endangered grasswrensand the elusive emu-wrens require special trips to see them and a lot of searching!  Images must contain one or more fairy-wren, emu-wren or grasswren species which are defined as all species in the family Maluridae.

Over the years, we've published a number of educational/tutorial articles in our bi-monthly Newsletter.  These are now available in Resources - Our Articles.  That page provides access to articles in four categories:

• Photography Techniques and Processes
• Image Processing
• Articles about Equipment
• In-depth Technical Articles

Articles in this section which are less than 24 months old are only accessible to our members, who must log-in to access them.

In the past week or so (early April, 2018), we've had several members contact us to report that they have been unable to upload images to our galleries; the upload would hang, sometimes reporting a timeout error, sometimes with no error message.  It appears that a recent update to the Safari web browser - the default for Apple systems - is the cause of this behaviour.  Our advice to Safari users who experience this problem is to change to an alternative web browser; we recommend either Chrome or Firefox.