Death kiss - Jonathan Lhoir

This image was taken on the Isle of May, Scotland. Great black-backed gulls in the area frequently prey on the eggs of other seabirds, such as kittiwakes, razorbills and guillemots. However, this is the first time the author saw a great black-backed gull attacking an adult puffin. There are many puffins on the island and during the breeding season, when they are feeding their offspring, they come and go to sea to fish. In the end, the puffin managed to free itself from the gull's beak and, after regaining consciousness on the surface of the water, took flight again. This is not always the case, as great black-backed gull attacks use to be fatal.

WINNER - White reflection on pink - Álvaro Benjumea

The photograph was taken in Fuente de Piedra, one of the most important wetlands in Western Europe for the flamingo. In wet years, the species comes to breed in this shallow lagoon where, in addition, chick ringing is carried out. The reading of rings in Fuente de Piedra has allowed us to know that the flamingos that use this lagoon move throughout the western Mediterranean, including Doñana, the Ebro Delta, the French Mediterranean coast or North Africa.

WINNER: The last guest  - Francisco Javier Abad

This barn owl was photographed as part of the nocturnal raptor monitoring project carried out by the ULULA Association in the Region of Murcia (Spain). Specifically, the individual in the photo, a male, was ringed as a chick in a nest box installed by the association. A year later it was found 2 km away in an old farm where there was also a nest box, which this individual was using to spend the winter. This information could be obtained thanks to the fact that the metal ring could be read with the photograph. The photograph was taken without using bait, with many hours of observation and waiting to see the usual perches. The old farm where the photographs were taken in 2022 has suffered a partial collapse and the owls have now disappeared. "It is a shame that these old farmhouses are disappearing from our fields," the author says. 

FINALIST: Vulture in the snow - Carlos Martínez

The Government of Aragon (Spain) and other conservation and scientific entities in the region periodically tag griffon vultures to better understand their movement and survival patterns. During this process, biological samples are also often taken to monitor the health of the birds. The vulture shown in the photo was marked by the Government of Aragon on October 6, 2010 in Laspueña (Huesca) and was photographed by the author at the gates of the Ordesa National Park, a few kilometers from Laspueña, a few years later.

WINNER: Red-backed shrike IV - Joxean Isasi

The red-backed shrike is a species in decline across much of its range, partly due to changes in land uses affecting traditional Atlantic countryside, in the case of the Cantabrian region. The author, who is also a ringer, is studying a small population of red-backed shrikes in order to estimate some demographic parameters such as the rate of fidelity to the territories and their annual survival, among others.

FINALIST: Flying through the skies - Sergio de la Fuente

Noalejo is a male Bonelli's eagle released as a chick in 2017 by GREFA, within the LIFE Bonelli project (Spain). In 2018 he paired with another Bonelli's eagle released that same year. Since then, they have been breeding in the Community of Madrid, raising chicks every year.

FINALIST: Among oats - José-Elías Rodríguez

This rufous-tailed scrub robin was ringed in 2017 and its photograph taken a year later, about 100 metres from where it was captured, in a study of the species by Lorenzo Alcántara near Almendralejo (Badajoz, Spain). The rufous-tailed scrub robin is a bird in sharp decline - in the latest edition of the Red List of the Birds of Spain its threat level raised to the category of 'Endangered'. In this context, scientific ringing is helping to understand some demographic parameters, such as survival and dispersal, essential to understand the dynamics of its declining population.

WINNER: Death in the saltmarsh - Juan Bécares

This flamingo was found dead in May 2022 at Punta de la Banya (Tarragona) during a monitoring work on Audouin's gull. It was ringed as a chick in 1983 in La Camargue (France), so it was 39 years old! Throughout its life, it has been observed on almost a hundred occasions in numerous locations, including the Marismas del Odiel (Huelva), Baquiruelas (Seville), La Camargue and other wetlands on the French Mediterranean coast, the Ebro Delta, Fuente de Piedra (Málaga) and wetlands on the Algerian coast. In 2002 and 2003 it bred in Fuente de Piedra (Málaga), in 2006 it was identified as a probable breeder in Algeria and in 2008 it laid a chick at Punta de la Banya. Undoubtedly very interesting data and a long and intense life.

FINALIST: The bearded vulture flight - Oliver Pérez-Amas

This bearded vulture, named 'Sistar', is a female that was ringed at the age of 3 years in La Garcipollera (Huesca, Spain), by the Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture. The photograph was taken in Torla, in the Ordesa National Park, at a distance of about 30 km west of the tagging point, at the age of 4 years. The tagging of specimens of this species is providing very valuable information for its conservation, such as knowing how they use the territory, how much and how far they move, how long they live, where and when they die or how they maite and breed.

FINALIST: Lesser kestrel - José-Elías Rodríguez

Male lesser kestrel released by DEMA and occupying artificial nest boxes installed in a farmhouse near Villalba de los Barros (Badajoz, Spain). For more than 30 years, DEMA, led by Pepe Antolín, has been working for the conservation of this endangered species, currently classified as 'Vulnerable' in Spain and which has suffered a decline of 30-40% at the national level so far this century.