Wildlife Photographer of the Year Returns to Royal BC Museum

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Jess Findlay, Canada, "Fitting the Bill," 2018

Highly commended 2018, Behaviours Birds, Jess captured the intense focus of this great northern diver parent, a species that usually lays just one to three eggs. With food for its precious chick gripped in its beak, its piercing red eyes stand out from its smart summer plumage.In the first few days of life, young great northern divers struggle to swallow even small fish. This parent is instead offering its chick a damselfly nymph. Parents lead them into shallow water, where the young birds can pluck small aquatic insects from the lake bottom and underwater vegetation.

Vancouver-based nature photographer Jess Findlay is one of the finalists in this year’s Wildlife of Photographer of the Year contest with his award-winning image, Fitting the Bill.

His photo of a common loon feeding its days-old baby, shot at a lake in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, is featured in the show, on view at the Royal BC Museum from Feb. 15 to March 24.

It's the show's only stop in Western Canada.

The popular exhibition, now in its 54th year, comes from the Natural History Museum in London, and showcases outstanding nature photography from around the world.

Findlay says he captured the shot in 2017 while leaning out over the water from a boat, about 30 feet away from the birds. "You're right down at their level," he says.

He says the loon, shown with its breeding plumage, looks quite different head-on.

"They actually look quite bizarre from the front," he says.

Some 50,000 photos were entered in the contest, which promotes conservation awareness.