Have you ever paused to appreciate the chocolate-dipped head of a female Eastern Towhee? Or been struck by the bold striping of a female Red-winged Blackbird? If not, you’re missing out. Female birds have gotten a bad rap through the years for being drabber and less interesting than their flashier male counterparts, but that is often far from true. Many female birds are stunning in their own right, and even if they do sport more subtle colors, they can be just as fascinating to observe as males—if not more so.
That’s why the Audubon Photography Awards introduced the Female Birds category in 2021. By creating a space for photographers to intentionally focus on females, our aim was to draw more attention to the long overlooked and understudied sex. While none of these photos took the top prize—see the 2024 APA winners here and the Top 100 here—they still impressed our judges enough to highlight in a separate gallery.
Along with each shot below, we’ve also included the story behind the image and a female ID tip for the species. If you find yourself motivated to capture your own fantastic female bird photos, our photography section has everything you need to get started, including tips and how-to’s and Audubon’s ethical guidelines for wildlife photography. And if you’ve got a photo in mind for next year’s contest: Entry opens in January!
Falkland Steamer-Duck by Gail Bisson (above)
Location: Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands
Behind the shot: My trip to the Falkland Islands was years in the making. Illness canceled my first trip in 2014, and the pandemic canceled my 2020 trip, which was rebooked for 2023. The Falkland Islands are renowned not only for their incredible wildlife, but also their strong winds. This image was taken on Sea Lion Island. On this day, the winds were near gale force. The sand was blowing so hard it stung my face and hands, and at times, the wind gusts almost pushed me backward. I scanned the beach and watched this Steamer-Duck paddle in from the ocean with her ducklings. Mom seemed oblivious to the blowing sand, but the ducklings were definitely bothered by it, using her as a shield. I slowly approached on my belly, which got me out of the fury of the wind and resulted in minimal disturbance to the little family as I observed them. This image was my favorite of the series.
Female ID Tip: Females of this stocky, flightless species have darker bodies and heads with a yellow-green beak, whereas the male sports an orange beak and pale, grayish feathers. Fun fact: Steamer-Ducks are named after paddle steamboats due to the way perturbed birds violently thrash their wings in the water.
Black-cheeked Woodpecker by Kaitlin Marks-Dubbs
Location: Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Behind the Shot: I love when a bird lets me sit in on its daily routine. I found this Black-cheeked Woodpecker clearing out a nest cavity just outside my hotel in Boca Tapada, Costa Rica. She was flagging in the heat, bobbing her head in and out of the hole with barely any shavings in her beak. To catch the behavior, I used the raised deck of a dining area to find an angle that would show the hole in progress at eye-level. Because she was building on the side of the trunk protected from the sun, my light source shone bright on the right of the tree and her pale ventral side. Exposing for mid-range tones throughout the image would blow the highlights. Instead, I exposed specifically for the brightest spots in the frame. I can’t tell you how many times she dug around inside and brought her head back out with a pitiful amount of debris. But she and I persisted through the afternoon, and in that moment when she tossed a large spray my way, it felt like we’d both accomplished something hard-won.
Female ID Tip: A resident of tropical lowlands in Central and northern South America, male and female Black-cheeked Woodpeckers look largely similar save for one distinct difference: While males are red from crown to nape, females have a black patch across the crown.
Red-necked Phalarope by Cathy Richardson
Location: Nome, Alaska
Behind the Shot: I was on a photo tour to Nome, Alaska. We were at a beach south of town where the Arctic Terns were catching fish. After a while, I looked for other birds and saw a group of Red-necked Phalaropes near the shore. By this time, our tour group had scattered, and I was alone. As I moved nearer the phalaropes, most of the birds flew off. I noticed that this lone female took off across the sand instead. I discreetly followed her. She began flapping and jumping up and down, presumably drying her wings. I got some shots from a kneeling position in case she flew off. I was able to carefully circle around and get in front of her. I got down on my stomach to get an eye-to-eye view of her as she jumped, catching her in mid-air. Since I was so low, only the strip of sand she was jumping on was in focus along with the bird. The foreground and background were nicely out of focus, centering the eye on the bird. I was excited because this was exactly what I was trying to catch. This trip was the first time I had ever seen these birds, and they were great fun to watch.
Female ID Tip: Female Red-necked Phalaropes flip the sex script in several ways. Not only is their plumage brighter, but they also viciously fight over the males they want to mate with. Once they’ve laid a clutch, they move on and often breed once more, leaving the males to feed and raise the young.
Blue Jay by Daniel Casimir
Location: Cross Plains, Wisconsin
Behind the Shot: Sitting inside on a January morning, I was practicing capturing birds in flight through the window. We often see vibrant Blue Jays visiting in winter, and I was hoping to catch some mid-flight or taking off from branches. As I crouched down to observe the upper branches, I noticed two Blue Jays engaged in courtship feeding. I quickly snapped a burst of photos. The moment the female accepted the gift from the male was a truly special moment to witness and capture.
Female ID Tip: Male and female Blue Jays look incredibly similar, with no discernible field marks to separate the sexes at a distance. Females are often slightly smaller, however, and it’s the female who exclusively incubates the eggs as the male flies back and forth bringing her food.
American Kestrel by Charles Janson
Location: Huson, Montana
Behind the Shot: Getting eye-level with a kestrel is not easy, and I succeeded not entirely by design. I had set up a blind on a steep hillside overlooking an Osprey nest so that I could record the pair raising their nestlings. Next to my blind was a dead tree that had a number of hole nests in it, one of which was occupied by a pair of American Kestrels. The birds often stopped on nearby trees, and one of these trees happened to be another dead tree with a tip nearly exactly level with my blind. When the Ospreys were not active, I would often focus on the top of that snag, waiting to catch any bird that came. Over the course of several days, I saw the kestrels many times. Once the young hatched, both parent kestrels hunted a lot, bringing back small prey (mostly insects) to the nest. Sometimes, a parent would detour and stop on the snag and eat the prey; this image is of the female of the pair. I really enjoyed being able to get such a close view of their family.
Female ID Tip: The easiest way to tell female and male American Kestrels apart? Females have reddish wings versus slate-blue on males. Also, as seen here, females have barred black tail tips whereas males have a broad black tip. Skilled hunters, both sexes feed the chicks.
Pileated Woodpecker by Mark Schocken
Location: John Chesnut Senior Park, Palm Harbor, Florida
Behind the Shot: A birder friend told me about a Pileated Woodpecker nest in a local park. I went to the specific location for a number of mornings and waited. On this particular morning, after around 20 minutes, an adult Pileated landed on a tree and almost immediately three chicks stuck their heads out of the cavity. The parent then came over to the nest and fed each chick. This image shows the female adult about to feed the chicks, although both parents alternated bringing food. After the feeding, the parent left, and I would wait about 20 to 60 minutes for the next feeding. On a technical note, the lighting was tricky, so complete shade was best. After the sun came up, as the morning progressed, light became overly contrasty and not desirable. Therefore, there was a narrow window when the light was ideal. I remember hoping that a feeding would occur during the good light and, on this particular morning in late April, I got my wish.
Female ID Tip: Male and female Pileated Woodpeckers feed chicks by regurgitating their meals. As seen above, the “whisker” mark coming off the beak is all black on female Pileated Woodpeckers. The mark is partially bright red on males.
Phainopepla by Lisa Mainz
Location: Case Natural Resource Park, Tucson, Arizona
Behind the Shot: There’s something particularly rewarding about photographing in the desert. Capturing a good shot takes patience and endurance in any climate, but the desert is less forgiving. I was at the Case Natural Resource Park, a 53-acre urban park that preserves what I imagine Tucson looked like 200 years ago. Nestled among prickly pear, cholla, and saguaro cactus, I found a small clearing where I could simply wait. In this area, patience is almost always rewarded by the arrival of some form of life—from lizards to javelina, jackrabbits to birds. As I watched in the already warm October morning, I spotted a lone female Phainopepla perched on the gnarled snag of a catclaw acacia surveying the area for food. We spotted the bee almost at the same time, and she was quick to react. This image shows her vaulting her silky self up and over in an admirable acrobatic maneuver to get the bee. The next image in this series shows she was successful, the bee in her bill.
Female ID Tip: Male Phainopeplas sport jet-black plumage while females feature ashy-gray feathers. Both sexes have a bright red eye that contrasts sharply. Interestingly, Phainopeplas are itinerant breeders, nesting once early in spring and then flying hundreds of miles to breed in a second location over the summer.
Black-backed Woodpecker by Nathan Wall
Location: Wenas Wildlife Area, Wenas, Washington State
Behind the Shot: After seeing reports of Black-backed Woodpeckers while browsing eBird reports for Eastern Washington, my wife and I set out from our home in Seattle with high hopes of locating one of these inconspicuous birds. We arrived early in the morning to the Wenas Wildlife Area in Yakima County and were surprised to see that one of our favorite swaths of ponderosa forest had burnt in a wildfire the previous autumn. The burn scar was, to our delight, however, the perfect habitat for our target bird. We set out through the burn and soon found an active mated pair of the woodpeckers. We shortly noticed that at variable yet predictable intervals the birds kept returning to a specific tree and were actively excavating a cavity. In their absence, I eagerly approached this tree and positioned myself behind the trunk of another as a blind. My presence was either tolerated or not noticed, and I was able to photograph these majestic birds for the better part of a magical hour before leaving satisfied.
Female ID Tip: Strikingly similar to the male, female Black-backed Woodpeckers lack the bright yellow patch on their crown. But don’t get too hasty with your ID: The juveniles in both sexes sport this yellow patch before females eventually lose theirs.
Red Crossbill by John Welch
Location: Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Salisbury, Massachusetts
Behind the Shot: During some winters, Red Crossbills will irrupt southward and stay in this large stand of pitch pines at Salisbury Beach State Reservation in Massachusetts. The bills of these birds have evolved into the seemingly misaligned shape as an advantage for getting into pinecones like this to extract the seeds. This shot of a female shows this adaption in action. Pitch pines are native to Massachusetts and New England, most frequently occur in sandy barrens, and the only salt-tolerant pine species in the region. I liked how the image conveyed the story of how the Red Crossbill uses this native plant for food and how its evolved bill helps it to access the inner seeds. The males are bright red and may garner more attention, but I wanted to show off the more understated, yet beautiful, female in this shot.
Female ID Tip: Named for the attention-grabbing males, Red Crossbill females are showstoppers in their own right, with stunning green plumage that perfectly blends in with the coniferous treetops where they forage for food.
American Woodcock by Andrew Tao
Location: Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, District of Columbia
Behind the Shot: Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens was a place I grew to both hate and love. The hotspot is one of the most species-rich in the Washington metropolitan area, and checklists on eBird would always have a plethora of juicy species. However, I never saw much at Kenilworth. But all of that changed one cloudy April day. Reports of an American Woodcock family were popping up all over eBird—an opportunity I simply couldn’t resist. With most pictures depicting the family in less-than-ideal shooting conditions, I didn’t have high hopes. Most checklists also didn’t specify their location. Worse, as we were hiking, we passed by another photographer who had not seen the family. Determined, we walked on until finally—there they were. The camouflaged woodcock family was foraging just off the trail, bobbing around in a lightly vegetated area that was relatively open. I slowly walked close to them, being careful not to disturb them. I quietly sat down next to the trail and started photographing them at eye-level. I witnessed many heartwarming moments, and these images remain some of my favorites.
Female ID Tip: Chicks are dependent on the woodcock hen for the first week after hatching, although the chicks will start foraging for some of their food by day three or four. By day 14 chicks are capable of short flights and can mostly forage for themselves.
