Jo Hayes, Woodpeckers in a Bhutanese forest (ANIMAL & NATURE 2026)

I recently went trekking in Bhutan with a newly minted interest in bird watching and a new (second hand) camera. The forests & mountains of Bhutan were amazingly beautiful, but the variety of birdlife was a surprise. I was photographing this pair of rufous-bellied woodpeckers , and it was only after I reviewed my photos that I discovered I had actually caught them in the act of mating! It was a split second event.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.