The theme for our competition held in September 2017 was "City Slickers", a theme suggested by Monica Awasthy, Program Manager of Birds In Backyards.  For this competition, we ask you to submit images of birds sharing our spaces – things such as the behaviour of a typical “urban” bird, maybe the beauty of a bird we might detest or ignore in a city, or people interacting with birds, or even a bird using a non-natural space. We’re not being strict on the “city” definition; we’ll consider anywhere there are buildings (small towns, even a group of farm buildings) to meet the criterion – and you don’t have to include structures in your images.

The results of member voting for the top 5 images in each category are listed here.  In line with many other bird/wildlife photo competitions, we present the results in the following manner: the Winner is the image which received the most votes; and we also show the next four highest placed images, rating them as Highly Commended if they received at least 90% of the votes for the winning image, and Commended for scores less than that.

Advanced Level – City Slickers

This category attracted 61 entries, from 18 photographers. 37 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Gang-gang Cockatoo, by Athena Georgiou (Image ID 27475)
• Highly Commended - Common Bronzewing, by Georgina Steytler (Image no longer available)
• Commended - Nankeen Kestrel, by Glenn Pure (Image ID 27411)
• Commended - Striated Pardalote, by Jeffrey Robinson (Image ID 27235)
• Commended - Grey Teal, by Con Boekel (Image no longer available)

Intermediate Level – City Slickers

This category attracted 92 entries, from 32 photographers. 39 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Spotted Dove, by Sandy Castle (Image ID 27298)
• Highly Commended - Galah, by Michael Schmid (Image no longer available)
• Commended - Great Egret, by Peter Bennet (Image ID 27429)
• Commended - New Holland Honeyeater, by Peter Owen (Image ID 27504)
• Commended - Crested Tern, by Doug Castle (Image ID 27219)

Entry Level – City Slickers

This category attracted 39 entries, from 13 photographers. 34 members voted, with the following result:

• Winner - Pied Butcherbird, by Simone Daley (Image ID 27339)
• Highly Commended - Spotted Dove, by Carol Trevanion (Image ID 27403)
• Commended - Common Bronzewing, by William Woodhouse (Image no longer available)
• Commended - Brown Thornbill, by McKinley Moens (Image ID 27678)
• Commended - Singing Honeyeater, by Douglas Coughran (Image ID 27515)