This year, a striking image of a northern gannet (Morus bassanus) in Scottish waters has earned UK snapper Henley Spiers the grand prize. This is also some good press for the species, which has been rocked by avian influenza outbreaks across North American nesting sites in the past few years.

Our cover image is not the only owl that stars this year, either. Swedish photographer Ivan Sjögren was caught in the act, spying on a short-eared owl (Asio flammeus) in Canada. It scored Sjögren the Gold Award in the Birds in Flight category.

"This was a magical evening, with five owls feeding around me as dusk fell," the photographer notes. "I witnessed both fights between owls and, later, displays in which they clapped their wings together. I took this photo by positioning myself strategically, hunkering down in the grass after anticipating the owls' hunting routes. I was lucky that the owl turned its head to look at me as it passed silently by."