Have you ever ever paused to recognize the chocolate-dipped head of a feminine Japanese Towhee? Or been struck by the daring striping of a feminine Purple-winged Blackbird? If not, you’re lacking out. Feminine birds have gotten a foul rap via the years for being drabber and fewer fascinating than their flashier male counterparts, however that’s typically removed from true. Many feminine birds are gorgeous in their very own proper, and even when they do sport extra delicate colours, they are often simply as fascinating to look at as males—if not more so.
That’s why the Audubon Pictures Awards launched the Feminine Birds class in 2021. By creating an area for photographers to deliberately give attention to females, our intention was to attract extra consideration to the long overlooked and understudied intercourse. Whereas none of those photographs took the highest prize—see the 2024 APA winners here and the Top 100 here—they nonetheless impressed our judges sufficient to focus on in a separate gallery.
Together with every shot under, we’ve additionally included the story behind the picture and a feminine ID tip for the species. If you end up motivated to seize your personal improbable feminine hen photographs, our photography section has the whole lot it’s worthwhile to get began, together with tips and how-to’s and Audubon’s ethical guidelines for wildlife images. And when you’ve bought a photograph in thoughts for subsequent 12 months’s contest: Entry opens in January!
Falkland Steamer-Duck by Gail Bisson (above)
Location: Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands
Behind the shot: My journey to the Falkland Islands was years within the making. Sickness canceled my first journey in 2014, and the pandemic canceled my 2020 journey, which was rebooked for 2023. The Falkland Islands are famend not just for their unimaginable wildlife, but additionally their sturdy winds. This picture was taken on Sea Lion Island. On at the present time, the winds had been close to gale drive. The sand was blowing so onerous it stung my face and arms, and at occasions, the wind gusts nearly pushed me backward. I scanned the seashore and watched this Steamer-Duck paddle in from the ocean together with her ducklings. Mother appeared oblivious to the blowing sand, however the ducklings had been positively bothered by it, utilizing her as a defend. I slowly approached on my stomach, which bought me out of the fury of the wind and resulted in minimal disturbance to the little household as I noticed them. This picture was my favourite of the collection.
Feminine ID Tip: Females of this stocky, flightless species have darker our bodies and heads with a yellow-green beak, whereas the male sports activities an orange beak and pale, grayish feathers. Enjoyable truth: Steamer-Geese are named after paddle steamboats because of the approach perturbed birds violently thrash their wings within the water.
Black-cheeked Woodpecker by Kaitlin Marks-Dubbs
Location: Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Behind the Shot: I like when a hen lets me sit in on its day by day routine. I discovered this Black-cheeked Woodpecker clearing out a nest cavity simply outdoors my resort in Boca Tapada, Costa Rica. She was flagging within the warmth, bobbing her head out and in of the opening with barely any shavings in her beak. To catch the habits, I used the raised deck of a eating space to search out an angle that might present the opening in progress at eye-level. As a result of she was constructing on the facet of the trunk shielded from the solar, my mild supply shone vivid on the correct of the tree and her pale ventral facet. Exposing for mid-range tones all through the picture would blow the highlights. As an alternative, I uncovered particularly for the brightest spots within the body. I can’t let you know what number of occasions she dug round inside and introduced her head again out with a pitiful quantity of particles. However she and I continued via the afternoon, and in that second when she tossed a big spray my approach, it felt like we’d each achieved one thing hard-won.
Feminine ID Tip: A resident of tropical lowlands in Central and northern South America, female and male Black-cheeked Woodpeckers look largely related save for one distinct distinction: Whereas males are pink from crown to nape, females have a black patch throughout the crown.
Purple-necked Phalarope by Cathy Richardson
Location: Nome, Alaska
Behind the Shot: I used to be on a photograph tour to Nome, Alaska. We had been at a seashore south of city the place the Arctic Terns had been catching fish. After some time, I appeared for different birds and noticed a gaggle of Purple-necked Phalaropes close to the shore. By this time, our tour group had scattered, and I used to be alone. As I moved nearer the phalaropes, a lot of the birds flew off. I observed that this lone feminine took off throughout the sand as a substitute. I discreetly adopted her. She started flapping and leaping up and down, presumably drying her wings. I bought some photographs from a kneeling place in case she flew off. I used to be in a position to rigorously circle round and get in entrance of her. I bought down on my abdomen to get an eye-to-eye view of her as she jumped, catching her in mid-air. Since I used to be so low, solely the strip of sand she was leaping on was in focus together with the hen. The foreground and background had been properly out of focus, centering the attention on the hen. I used to be excited as a result of this was precisely what I used to be making an attempt to catch. This journey was the primary time I had ever seen these birds, and so they had been nice enjoyable to look at.
Feminine ID Tip: Feminine Purple-necked Phalaropes flip the intercourse script in a number of methods. Not solely is their plumage brighter, however additionally they viciously battle over the males they need to mate with. As soon as they’ve laid a clutch, they transfer on and sometimes breed as soon as extra, leaving the males to feed and lift the younger.
Blue Jay by Daniel Casimir
Location: Cross Plains, Wisconsin
Behind the Shot: Sitting inside on a January morning, I used to be training capturing birds in flight via the window. We regularly see vibrant Blue Jays visiting in winter, and I hoped to catch some mid-flight or taking off from branches. As I crouched down to look at the higher branches, I observed two Blue Jays engaged in courtship feeding. I shortly snapped a burst of photographs. The second the feminine accepted the present from the male was a really particular second to witness and seize.
Feminine ID Tip: Female and male Blue Jays look extremely related, with no discernible discipline marks to separate the sexes at a distance. Females are sometimes barely smaller, nonetheless, and it’s the feminine who solely incubates the eggs because the male flies forwards and backwards bringing her meals.
American Kestrel by Charles Janson
Location: Huson, Montana
Behind the Shot: Getting eye-level with a kestrel will not be simple, and I succeeded not solely by design. I had arrange a blind on a steep hillside overlooking an Osprey nest in order that I might report the pair elevating their nestlings. Subsequent to my blind was a useless tree that had quite a lot of gap nests in it, one in every of which was occupied by a pair of American Kestrels. The birds typically stopped on close by bushes, and one in every of these bushes occurred to be one other useless tree with a tip practically precisely stage with my blind. When the Ospreys weren’t lively, I’d typically give attention to the highest of that snag, ready to catch any hen that got here. Over the course of a number of days, I noticed the kestrels many occasions. As soon as the younger hatched, each father or mother kestrels hunted lots, bringing again small prey (largely bugs) to the nest. Generally, a father or mother would detour and cease on the snag and eat the prey; this picture is of the feminine of the pair. I actually loved having the ability to get such a detailed view of their household.
Feminine ID Tip: The best strategy to inform feminine and male American Kestrels aside? Females have reddish wings versus slate-blue on males. Additionally, as seen right here, females have barred black tail suggestions whereas males have a broad black tip. Expert hunters, each sexes feed the chicks.
Pileated Woodpecker by Mark Schocken
Location: John Chesnut Senior Park, Palm Harbor, Florida
Behind the Shot: A birder good friend informed me a couple of Pileated Woodpecker nest in an area park. I went to the precise location for quite a lot of mornings and waited. On this specific morning, after round 20 minutes, an grownup Pileated landed on a tree and nearly instantly three chicks caught their heads out of the cavity. The father or mother then came to visit to the nest and fed every chick. This picture reveals the feminine grownup about to feed the chicks, though each mother and father alternated bringing meals. After the feeding, the father or mother left, and I’d wait about 20 to 60 minutes for the following feeding. On a technical word, the lighting was difficult, so full shade was greatest. After the solar got here up, because the morning progressed, mild turned overly contrasty and never fascinating. Subsequently, there was a slender window when the sunshine was ideally suited. I bear in mind hoping {that a} feeding would happen through the good mild and, on this specific morning in late April, I bought my want.
Feminine ID Tip: Female and male Pileated Woodpeckers feed chicks by regurgitating their meals. As seen above, the “whisker” mark coming off the beak is all black on feminine Pileated Woodpeckers. The mark is partially vivid pink on males.
Phainopepla by Lisa Mainz
Location: Case Pure Useful resource Park, Tucson, Arizona
Behind the Shot: There’s one thing notably rewarding about photographing within the desert. Capturing a superb shot takes persistence and endurance in any local weather, however the desert is much less forgiving. I used to be on the Case Pure Useful resource Park, a 53-acre city park that preserves what I think about Tucson appeared like 200 years in the past. Nestled amongst prickly pear, cholla, and saguaro cactus, I discovered a small clearing the place I might merely wait. On this space, persistence is sort of at all times rewarded by the arrival of some type of life—from lizards to javelina, jackrabbits to birds. As I watched within the already heat October morning, I noticed a lone feminine Phainopepla perched on the gnarled snag of a catclaw acacia surveying the realm for meals. We noticed the bee nearly on the similar time, and she or he was fast to react. This picture reveals her vaulting her silky self up and over in an admirable acrobatic maneuver to get the bee. The subsequent picture on this collection reveals she was profitable, the bee in her invoice.
Feminine ID Tip: Male Phainopeplas sport jet-black plumage whereas females characteristic ashy-gray feathers. Each sexes have a vivid pink eye that contrasts sharply. Apparently, Phainopeplas are itinerant breeders, nesting as soon as early in spring after which flying a whole bunch of miles to breed in a second location over the summer season.
Black-backed Woodpecker by Nathan Wall
Location: Wenas Wildlife Space, Wenas, Washington State
Behind the Shot: After seeing studies of Black-backed Woodpeckers whereas looking eBird studies for Japanese Washington, my spouse and I set out from our house in Seattle with excessive hopes of finding one in every of these inconspicuous birds. We arrived early within the morning to the Wenas Wildlife Space in Yakima County and had been stunned to see that one in every of our favourite swaths of ponderosa forest had burnt in a wildfire the earlier autumn. The burn scar was, to our delight, nonetheless, the proper habitat for our goal hen. We set out via the burn and shortly discovered an lively mated pair of the woodpeckers. We shortly observed that at variable but predictable intervals the birds saved returning to a particular tree and had been actively excavating a cavity. Of their absence, I eagerly approached this tree and positioned myself behind the trunk of one other as a blind. My presence was both tolerated or not observed, and I used to be in a position to {photograph} these majestic birds for the higher a part of a magical hour earlier than leaving glad.
Feminine ID Tip: Strikingly much like the male, feminine Black-backed Woodpeckers lack the intense yellow patch on their crown. However don’t get too hasty together with your ID: The juveniles in each sexes sport this yellow patch earlier than females ultimately lose theirs.
Purple Crossbill by John Welch
Location: Salisbury Seashore State Reservation, Salisbury, Massachusetts
Behind the Shot: Throughout some winters, Purple Crossbills will irrupt southward and keep on this giant stand of pitch pines at Salisbury Seashore State Reservation in Massachusetts. The payments of those birds have developed into the seemingly misaligned form as a bonus for entering into pinecones like this to extract the seeds. This shot of a feminine reveals this adaption in motion. Pitch pines are native to Massachusetts and New England, most steadily happen in sandy barrens, and the one salt-tolerant pine species within the area. I appreciated how the picture conveyed the story of how the Purple Crossbill makes use of this native plant for meals and the way its developed invoice helps it to entry the interior seeds. The males are vivid pink and should garner extra consideration, however I needed to indicate off the extra understated, but stunning, feminine on this shot.
Feminine ID Tip: Named for the attention-grabbing males, Purple Crossbill females are showstoppers in their very own proper, with gorgeous inexperienced plumage that completely blends in with the coniferous treetops the place they forage for meals.
American Woodcock by Andrew Tao
Location: Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, District of Columbia
Behind the Shot: Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens was a spot I grew to each hate and love. The hotspot is among the most species-rich within the Washington metropolitan space, and checklists on eBird would at all times have a plethora of juicy species. Nonetheless, I by no means noticed a lot at Kenilworth. However all of that modified one cloudy April day. Reviews of an American Woodcock household had been popping up throughout eBird—a possibility I merely couldn’t resist. With most footage depicting the household in less-than-ideal taking pictures situations, I didn’t have excessive hopes. Most checklists additionally didn’t specify their location. Worse, as we had been mountain climbing, we handed by one other photographer who had not seen the household. Decided, we walked on till lastly—there they had been. The camouflaged woodcock household was foraging simply off the path, bobbing round in a evenly vegetated space that was comparatively open. I slowly walked near them, being cautious to not disturb them. I quietly sat down subsequent to the path and began photographing them at eye-level. I witnessed many heartwarming moments, and these photographs stay a few of my favorites.
Feminine ID Tip: Chicks are depending on the woodcock hen for the primary week after hatching, though the chicks will begin foraging for a few of their meals by day three or 4. By day 14 chicks are able to quick flights and might largely forage for themselves.
