Adorable image of chick shielding its siblings among winners of Bird Photographer of the Year 2026
The winners of the 2026 Bird Photographer of the Year competition have been announced, with Henley Spiers taking the grand prize. The competition organizers emphasized the importance of authentic, non-AI imagery in capturing the natural world.
Why it matters
It highlights the ongoing cultural debate regarding the value of human-captured photography versus AI-generated content.
The winners of the Bird Photographer of the Year 2026 competition have been revealed. The grand prize recipient is an image of a northern gannet bursting through the surface of the ocean, taken by photographer Henley Spiers from the United Kingdom .
Photographers from around the world competed in eight categories in the adult competition and three categories in the youth competition, with the competition receiving more than 24,000 images.
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