This year’s competition winners have captured some strikingly beautiful images worth seeing!
South Africa (11 September 2025) – If you’re a bird-observer, you’ll know there’s nothing prettier than a flash of feathers caught at just the right moment!
This year’s BirdLife South Africa Photography Competition saw nearly 400 photographers submitting more than 2500 images. In its third year, the national competition has already grown into the country’s biggest showcase of bird photography.
Beyond the beautiful winning shots (and the hundreds of others that came close), it raised significant funding to protect the very birds it celebrates. Every entry, every donation, every image has helped BirdLife SA continue their vital conservation work.
And our birds need it. Dozens of species in South Africa are Endangered or Critically Endangered. Hundreds more face serious threats.
Meet the winners!
The overall Grand Prize of this year’s BirdLife South Africa Photography Competition went to Beverly Pickford. Her underwater photo of a Cape Cormorant chasing sardines during the annual sardine run is beautiful. The bird itself is regionally Endangered, so her win also raises awareness.
Johan Kloppers won the Portrait category with a Giant Kingfisher in perfect clarity, tilapia clutched in its beak. A striking portrait of a hunter at work.
The Birds in the Environment award went to Konrad Andrag for his powerful image of a Secretarybird weathering a dust storm. Konrad’s win is especially impressive as he was last crowned Youth winner last year, and this year he’s risen to the top again, this time in a new category.
In the Garden category, Peter-John Welcome showed that everyday beauty counts too, with his colourful image of a White-bellied Sunbird feeding on wild dagga flowers=
The Youth award went to 16-year-old Andrio de Vries for his Yellow-billed Duck, a photo that earned him a brand-new camera kit to keep growing his skills.
South Africans also had their say. The People’s Choice went to Dave Dooley for his Greater Double-collared Sunbird weathering a KwaZulu-Natal blizzard. A tiny bird, holding strong against the storm.
Two categories brought conservation into sharp focus. Benjamin Loon took top honours in Threatened Species with his image of a Critically Endangered White-backed Vulture mid-feed. And Rachel Gemmell won the Endemic award with her photograph of a Blue Crane, our national bird and a vulnerable species. The timing couldn’t have been better, coinciding with BirdLife SA’s decision to place the Blue Crane at the heart of their new logo.
Each one of these winning photos reminds us that birds aren’t guaranteed a future unless we fight for one.
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