Xwinger and I narrowed down the contest entries from 140 to 35 to 6. We agonized over which of the last 6 should be the winner. All 6 of the finalists were excellent pictures and met the “obscured bird” criteria. In the end we selected gurineb’s Nest-building Hummingbird as the best. That is not to say that the remaining 5 pictures weren’t excellent, too. Here are the images that deserve an Honorable Mention for their photography. In no particular order:
Ronald Zigler’s photo of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet was striking! Such a hard bird to get a picture of, let alone with it showing its ruby-colored crown.
Bajadreamer, the winner of our first contest, submitted another highly-rated shot of a Gray Thrasher. Xwinger and I loved how it appeared to be emerging from behind the wall of limbs and berries.
You probably remember Ronald Zigler’s Juvenile Rub-Throated Hummingbird shot as I had encouraged him to expand the crop to include all the parts of the flower. The final product is a stunner.
Emil Baumbach’s shot of a Saw-whet Owl looks like it was taken through a small window of leaves and limbs, yet the eyes and face of the owl are sharp as a tack.
Finally, AlwaysBirding’s pic of a Yellow Warbler peeking through the catkins of a spring plant has a beautiful yellow glow to it. We loved the eye peeking through.
Many thanks to the 19 GreatBirdPics members who submitted photos for the contest. Thanks also to Xwinger to helping judge the photos. Let’s do another contest in a couple of months!
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