The Birds in Arid Habitats competition was held in September-October 2018.  The theme for this competition was simple: you may submit pictures of birds which are found in Australia's arid areas - and that's a lot of the country!  We're not going to attempt to closely define "arid habitat"; we'll be applying our own "pub test" to submissions.  But to help, we'll be using this map of Australian climate regions as a guide; the arid regions are those areas shown as Desert or Grassland - most of Australia!

The results of member voting for the top 5 images 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 – Birds in Arid Habitats

This category attracted 39 entries, from 12 photographers. 37 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Red-backed Kingfisher, by Glenn Pure (Image ID 31911)
• Commended - Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, by Terence Alexander (Image ID 32169)
• Commended - Mulga Parrot, by Brian O'Leary (Image ID 31888)
• Commended - Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, by Wilson Lennard (Image no longer available)
• Commended - Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, by Chris Morecroft (Image ID 32050)

Intermediate Level – Birds in Arid Habitats

This category attracted 70 entries, from 22 photographers. 35 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, by Peter Owen (Image ID 32012)
• Commended - Mulga Parrot, by Bill Harding (Image ID 31989)
• Commended - Australian Ringneck, by Michiko Iida (Image ID 31926)
• Commended - Spinifex Pigeon, by Gary King (Image ID 31831)
• Commended - Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, by Hayley Alexander (Image ID 32143)

Entry Level – Birds in Arid Habitats

This category attracted 19 entries, from 5 photographers. 40 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Spinifex Pigeon, by Chris Young (Image ID 32005)
• Highly Commended - Yellow Chat, by Chris Young (Image ID 32022)
• Commended - Black-faced Woodswallow, by Chris Young (Image ID 32068)
• Commended - Mistletoebird, by Jennifer Carr (Image ID 32155)
• Commended - Brown Falcon, by Deanne Gaskill (Image ID 32187)