Yellow Wagtail by Geoff Snowball

 

 

Yellow Wagtail is without doubt one of the most beautiful birds to breed in Britain, yet a 75% decline in the five decades to 2017 means that it is no longer a familiar sight for many of us. Living in Wiltshire, photographer Geoff Snowball is fortunate enough to have a decent local population close by and regularly uploads images of this species to the BirdGuides gallery. Geoff's latest series of shots documented the display of a male Yellow Wagtail, with some striking shapes thrown by the bird caught very effectively on camera. One of these, shown above, is this week's Photo of the Week winner – set against a complementary green background, the male's unusual 'stretching' display is shown brilliantly here, with the raised head creating an eye-catching contrast between the yellow plumage, and black bill and eyes. Congratulations to Geoff on this innovative winner!

 

Other notable images

 

Northern Gannet, Isle of Noss, Shetland (Paul Roberts).

Harlequin Duck, Myvatn, Iceland (Chris Hawes).

Eurasian Coot, Stover CP, Devon (Richard Hibbert).

Eleonora's Falcon, Worth, Kent (Tony Davison).

Guillemot, Farne Islands, Northumberland (Peter Garrity).

Common Snipe, Loch Leven, Perth & Kinross (Keith Simpson).

American Black Tern, Long Nanny, Northumberland (Peter Garrity).

Ring-billed Gull, Loch Turret Reservoir, Perth & Kinross (Nick Truby).

Rosy Starling, Marsden, West Yorkshire (Stephen Pogson).

Wood Warbler, Longshaw Estate, Derbyshire (Paul Coombes).

Red-backed Shrike, Murol, Puy-de-Dôme (Richard Mills).

Isabelline Shrike, Dornod , Mongolia (Silas Olofson).

Lesser Redpoll, Hawick, Borders (Ron Mccombe).

Common Rosefinch, Fair Isle, Shetland (Alex Penn).

Corn Bunting, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire (Matthew Barfield).

Snow Bunting, Flatey, Breiðafjörður, Iceland (Dave Jackson).