This striking image, photographed by Rajesh Mohan of Woburn, Massachusetts, was the first place winner of the 2019 Bird Portrait Contest sponsored by BirdWatching Magazine. It is 14 x 20" mounted on a foamcore board. 

Date and place: July 26, 2017, at Bonaventure National Park, an island off the eastern coast of Quebec

Here’s how he describes the image:

 “This photograph of a Northern Gannet is special for me. I wanted an intimate photograph that showed the sharp features of this bird that enable it to perform extraordinary tactics. It can dive into water at 60 mph, brace for impact, quickly adapting its eyes from the glittering surface above water to underwater to chase down a fish. In all this, the beak and the eyes play a big role. I used a 600mm +1.4x and scanned the birds for this frame. Finally, on the second day, late in the day, the light changed to something magical and everything came together. And one bird turned to give this perfect frame of the beak, the lines, and both the eyes. It looks more mechanical, like a high-performance rocket ready to take off. Shortly after I took the shot, the ranger nudged me to leave to catch the last ferry out.”