Voting for the BirdGuides Photo of the Year award is now closed! We'll be annoucing the winner very shortly.
A big thanks to all our users for posting so many outstanding images during 2018! Without you there would be no weekly competition and no Photograph of the Year to round it all off.
The judging of Photo of the Week is down to me, and I understand when my choice is not the same as others. I wouldn’t want it any other way – photography is so subjective that everyone will have a different opinion about most photos that are published.
I look at every image in all the categories and my winning choice is not influenced by who they are taken by, rarity value or location; I make my selection based on how much I like a particular image that week. Sometimes there may be a standout winner on the first day, other weeks it could be a last-minute upload that takes the honours. Sometimes there are so many possible winners that it really is so difficult to choose!
The 52 winning images of 2018 were taken by a total of 45 photographers. Five photographers had two winners each, while Helge Sorensen amazingly had three.
These photos have been whittled down to a shortlist of 10 by our panel of judges, and it’s now down to you to select the winner from the list below. So now you can argue with each other about which of these stunning images should be the BirdGuides Photo of the Year 2018.
Simply scroll down to browse them all and then choose your favourite from the dropdown menu. The photo with the most votes by midnight on Sunday 3 February will win the award. Steve Young
