Hummingbird Festival Photo Contest

So many people contribute to making our photo contest a fantastic event: volunteers who plan, setup, monitor and execute the contest; judges who donate their time to select winning images, and participants like you, who enter hummingbird photos! You make it great!

Even if you don’t have a photo to enter, you can be an important participant in this event: Stop by the display to enjoy the amazing images and cast your vote for your favorite. Voting ends Saturday at 4pm, but all the images will remain on display until Sunday at 4pm. Come to the awards ceremony in the main auditorium on Sunday at 10:30 to learn which images won — entry to the awards ceremony is free.

Winning photographs will be displayed on the International Hummingbird Society’s Sedona Hummingbird Festival website for one year.

Ready to enter? All the details can be found below our gallery of 2025 Winning Photos.

2025 Winning Photos

Judging and Awards

Each person who submits photos will receive a participation gift.

Winning photos will receive a rosette ribbon and will be featured on our website for one year. Judges’ Grand Prize and People’s Choice Award winners each receive 2 VIP tickets to the next year’s Sedona Hummingbird Festival (includes all presentations, garden tours, and hummingbird banding).

Awards will be revealed on Sunday at 10:30am in the main auditorium at Hummingbird Central (the Sedona Performing Arts Center). Everyone is welcome to attend the awards ceremony at no charge.

Awards will be given in these categories:

PEOPLE’S CHOICE: attendees may vote for their favorite during the Festival between Friday at 1 pm and Saturday at 4pm.
2025 Winner: Ilenia Alvarez, “Mom in Heaven” White-bellied Woodstar

JUDGES’ AWARDS: determined by a panel of professional and expert bird photographers. 2025 winners are listed below:

• Judges’ Choice — Grand Prize (the Grand Prize photo cannot win in any other category)
2025 Winner: Samuel Sheats, “Emergence” Anna’s Hummingbird

• Best image of a hummingbird taken in the U.S.
2025 Winner: Barbara Van Matre, “Purple Power” Black-chinned Hummingbird

• Best image of a hummingbird taken in an international location
2025 Winner: Ilenia Alvarez, “Eze’s Magic Moment” Violet-headed Hummingbird

• Best image taken by a beginning photographer
2025 Winner: Anand Paranjpe, “Elegance” Anna’s Hummingbird

• Best image taken by an intermediate/advanced photographer
2025 Winner: Samuel Sheats, “Flyby” Anna’s Hummingbird

• Best image of a perched hummingbird
2025 Winner: Dicle Sensoy, “Corner Break” Anna’s Hummingbirds

• Best image of a hummingbird in flight
2025 Winner: Darby Tatsak, “Who’s Zooming Who?” Rufous Hummingbird

New categories for 2026:

• Best group photo (more than 1 hummingbird). Nest photos excluded.
• Best image of a hummingbird taken by a youth photographer (17 and under)

Entry is Easy!

• Maximum 3 photo prints per person
• Entry fee is only $5 per photo! Youth entries are no charge.
• Do not mat or frame your photos. Photos will be attached to a display system using a non-destructive method (but we cannot guarantee photos will not be damaged).

Three steps to enter:

1. Register online between May 1 and July 16, 2026. This is new in 2026: You must register and pay for your entries on or before July 16. We cannot accept entry payments at the Festival.
2. In addition to printing your photos, you will need to upload a medium-sized (1200 pixels on the longest side) digital copy (jpg) of each photo you are entering. Instructions for uploading your photo will be included in the registration confirmation after you submit your entry information.
3. Bring a copy of your registration confirmation and your printed photos to the Photo Contest Registration Desk at the Festival on Thursday July 23 between 1-5pm or Friday July 24 between 8-10am. We cannot accept photo prints after 10am on Friday July 24. Each photo should have the following information on the back:

• • Your name
  • Your phone number
  • Your email
  • Image title
  • Hummingbird species
  • Country of photograph
  • Whether you are a beginning, intermediate/advanced, or youth photographer

Can’t attend the Festival? You can enter by mail. Use the online Festival registration form to enter, pay your entry fee, and upload the digital (jpg) copy of your images. Mail a copy of your registration confirmation and your photos with required information on the back to:

International Hummingbird Society
P.O. Box 4222
Sedona, AZ 86340

Note: Mailed entries must arrive no later than Friday July 17th 2026.

Print Size Requirements

Maximum 10”, minimum 6” on the longest side. 10” is the preferred size because it is easy to view.

Image Requirements

Images shall be created by the photographer using in-camera techniques.

Normal processing of the original file is acceptable. That includes:

• Cropping
• Minor adjustments to color, white balance, tone, lighting levels and curves, shadows and highlights, saturation, contrast, sharpness
• Moderate dodging and burning
• Removal of dust spots and moderate reduction of image noise
• Adding a vignette
• Moderate background blurring

Disallowed Photographs

Photographs that have been digitally or otherwise altered beyond standard optimization will be disqualified.

That includes:

• AI-generated images
• Composite images such as sky replacement or combining elements from multiple photographs
• Images of the same subject that are combined in-camera or with software by focus stacking or exposure blending
• Images that have been manipulated by the addition, removal, or alteration (painting over, cloning, or blurring) of anything in the original subject and scene
• Signatures, watermarks or other identifying marks such as the photographer’s name.
• Changes in color so significant that the processed colors are widely different from the original colors

Pick Up and Permissions

Photographers can pick up their prints at the end of the festival, but IHS is not responsible for returning them or for any loss or damage to them. Photos not picked up will become the property of IHS; the copyright remains with the photographer.

Photographers give permission to the International Hummingbird Society to use the images on its website and in social media to promote the International Hummingbird Society/Sedona Hummingbird Festival, with credit to the photographer.

Questions

If you have questions about the photo contest, please contact our Photo Contest Team at: PhotoContest@hummingbirdsociety.org