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Liron Gertsman’s “The Frigatebird and the Diamond Ring” is the overall winner of Bird Photographer of the Year 2025: a frigatebird silhouetted against the bright edge of a total solar eclipse. The image was one of more than 33,000 entries in a global competition whose winners also celebrate bird behavior, habitat, conservation, urban wildlife and young photographic talent.
Liron Gertsman’s “The Frigatebird and the Diamond Ring” is the defining image of Bird Photographer of the Year 2025: a magnificent frigatebird appears as a dark silhouette against the blazing edge of a total solar eclipse. The photograph won both the competition’s overall title and Gold in the Birds in Flight category.
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More than 33,000 images were entered, according to the competition’s 2025 results announcement. That scale supports the contest’s description in contemporaneous coverage as one of the world’s biggest bird-photography competitions, although the official competition material describes it more cautiously as a global event rather than publishing an independently audited worldwide ranking.
The winning photograph took more than a year to plan
Gertsman, a Canadian photographer, did not simply happen upon the eclipse and wait for a bird to cross the frame. He spent more than a year planning the picture, then used a boat to position himself near seabird-frequented islets off Mazatlán, Mexico.
The decisive moment lasted only briefly. The frigatebird was captured during the eclipse’s “diamond ring” phase, when the Moon has nearly covered the Sun and a final bright edge of sunlight shines around it. The result combines astronomical timing, a carefully chosen position and the unpredictable movement of a wild bird in one exceptionally clean silhouette.
The 2025 winners page lists a £3,500 top prize for Gertsman. That figure should be distinguished from the competition’s general prize-information page, which currently describes a £3,000 grand prize; the 2025 winners announcement is the relevant source for this year’s award.
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The winning gallery is broader than a collection of technically perfect bird portraits. Its categories reward photographs about habitat, behavior, flight, human environments, conservation and experimental image-making as well as conventional natural-history subjects.
Best Portrait
Gold: Steffen Foerster, Germany — “Bloody Petrel”
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Birds in the Environment
Gold: Franco Banfi, Switzerland — “Feasting at Sunset”
Bird Behaviour
Gold: Francesco Guffanti, Italy — “Angel or Demon”
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Gold: Liron Gertsman, Canada — “The Frigatebird and the Diamond Ring”
Black and White
Gold: Jannik Jansons, Germany — “The Giant”
Urban Birds
Gold: Alex Pansier, Netherlands — “Feathered on Panels”
Creative Perspectives
Gold: Philipp Egger, Italy — “Photo Art”
Conservation: Single Image
Gold: Sarthak Agrawal, India — “Radiographing”
A portfolio about goldfinches and an unharvested field
Mateusz Piesiak of Poland won Best Portfolio for “Sunflower Paradise.” The project began with an unusual agricultural consequence: high water levels left a sunflower field unharvested. Instead of becoming waste ground, the field became a refuge for tens of thousands of goldfinches.
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Piesiak used environmental compositions, motion-filled frames and long exposures to show the scale and energy of the flock. The portfolio also makes a conservation argument without turning away from visual beauty: leaving small areas of farmland untouched may create valuable pockets of habitat for wildlife.
The conservation award follows the people protecting loons
Joshua Burch won the Conservation Award for “The Loon Ranger,” a series documenting conservationists connected with Charleston Lake. The project includes the construction and installation of nesting rafts for Common Loons.
The work addresses practical pressures on the birds, including nest predation and declining loon numbers. Conservation teams monitored nests, refined raft designs and installed cameras beneath raft canopies so they could observe nesting activity without disturbing incubating birds. In this category, the subject is not only the species but also the patient, often unseen work required to give it a better chance of breeding successfully.
Henry Kirkwood wins the Video Award
The competition’s Video Award went to Henry Kirkwood. Unlike a single still-image category, the award recognizes a strong sequence of clips that builds a compelling story. Its inclusion reflects how contemporary bird and wildlife work increasingly moves between still photography, documentary filmmaking and short-form visual narrative.
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Sixteen-year-old wins the youth title
Polish photographer Tomasz Michalski, aged 16, was named Young Bird Photographer of the Year for a striking vulture silhouette. He also won Gold in the official 15–17 years category.
The other youth Gold winners were:
- 12–14 years: Harry Sedin of Sweden, for “Jewel of the Forest.”
- 11 and under: Sasha Jumanca of Germany and Romania, for “Graceful Flight Over Wild Bloom.”
Where to see more of the 2025 winning images
Readers who want to linger over the full selection can look for Bird Photographer of the Year: Collection 10, the competition’s hardback book of awarded and commended images. The official shop lists the physical book at £35, while the competition describes the collection as containing almost 300 images; its annual collections are described as 256-page hardbacks.
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The 2025 results show why the competition reaches beyond ordinary bird portraiture. Gertsman’s eclipse image is an extraordinary study in timing, but the wider gallery also finds drama in a flooded sunflower field, a conservation raft, an urban setting, a monochrome composition, a creative interpretation and the work of emerging photographers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What photograph won Bird Photographer of the Year 2025?
Liron Gertsman’s “The Frigatebird and the Diamond Ring” won both the overall Bird Photographer of the Year 2025 title and Gold in Birds in Flight. The photograph shows a frigatebird silhouetted against the diamond-ring phase of a total solar eclipse off Mazatlán, Mexico.
How many entries did Bird Photographer of the Year 2025 receive?
More than 33,000 images were entered in the 2025 competition, according to the competition’s official results announcement.
How much was the 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year prize?
The 2025 winners page lists a £3,500 top prize for overall winner Liron Gertsman. The competition’s general prize page currently shows a different £3,000 grand-prize figure, so the year-specific winners announcement is the appropriate reference for the 2025 amount.
Is there a book of the winning bird photographs?
The official shop lists Bird Photographer of the Year: Collection 10 as a £35 physical hardback. The collection contains awarded and commended images from the competition.
The Bottom Line
The 2025 overall winner is Liron Gertsman’s “The Frigatebird and the Diamond Ring,” a precisely timed silhouette made during the diamond-ring phase of a total solar eclipse. But the competition’s more than 33,000 entries produced a much wider story—one that includes habitat, behavior, conservation, video, urban birds and exceptional young photographers.
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