A colorful Common Kingfisher with a newly captured fish was photographed by Raghavendra Pai in India. A very special image of a red morph and gray morph Eastern Screech Owl roosting side by side was photographed by Jack Starret in Canada. A heart-shaped pose formed by a pair of Black-necked Swans initially overshadows the downy cygnet riding on an adult’s back, photographed in Chile by Mason Maron.

Birders contributed more than 9 million bird photos to the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library in 2022, and to highlight that monumental collective effort the staff has selected 50 bird photos to share, ranging from kingfishers to cockatoos, loons to lorikeets, and more. Many photos in the Macaulay Library collection demonstrate the talent and patience of bird photographers who document unique avian moments. Primarily through eBird reports, tens of thousands of birders share their audio, video, and photographic records with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which are transferred to the Macaulay Library to make it a global ornithology resource for the world to utilize.

Then too, during the past year biologists have published more than 70 articles in research journals using Macaulay Library media assets. The Macaulay Library couldn’t be what it is today without a dedicated global birding community to sup­port it, so the staff at Macaulay Library thanks all the archives’ contributors for all you do, and they can’t wait to see what we do together in 2023.

To review the remarkable Top 50 bird photos provided by birders during 2022, see Macaulay Library’s Best Bird Photos 2023 | All About Birds All About Birds

You can also see more of the best bird photos of 2022 from the Macaulay Library at Media Search - Macaulay Library and eBird (click on any photo to view a larger image).