The British Wildlife Photography Awards has just published the 2023 winners of its annual contest. This year, the overall winner is a gut-wrenching photo of a red fox moving through a woodland, destroyed to make way for an industrial site.

This year’s competition saw more than 13,000 images, submitted by amateur and professional photographers across Great Britain. Other than Charlie Page, who is this year’s grand prize winner, there are many more category winners and runner-ups showing the diverse wildlife of the isle. Let’s see them and learn more about them.

British Wildlife Photography Awards 2023 overall winner

Charlie Page is a 28 years old photographer based in England, where his winning image was taken. Other than the grand prize, this photo also brought him first place in the Urban Wildlife category of the contest.

About his winning image, Charlie says:

“I knew this area was frequented by foxes, and I wanted to take an image with the industrial backdrop to show the devastation caused to this local woodland that the fox calls home. I hope that wildlife photographers aren’t faced with similar scenes in years to come.”

The RSPB Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023

This year’s Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year was awarded to Billy Evans-Freke for his image of a tawny owlet resting in a tree. This year, the award is supported by the RSPB with the aim of encouraging young people to get involved with nature.

There were three age groups in the young competition: 11 and under, 12-14 years, and 15-17 years. Billy’s image won the 15-17 age category of the contest, while Wilbur King and Felix Walker-Nix won the other two.

Category winners

Photographers competed in ten different categories in the adult competition: Animal Behaviour, Animal Portraits, Botanical Britain, Black & White, British Seasons, Coast & Marine, Habitat, Hidden Britain, Urban Wildlife, and Wild Woods. As I mentioned, Charlie Page’s fox image won the Urban Wildlife category, and in this section, we bring you the rest of the category winners, as well as runner-ups.

Take a look at the images below, and if you like images in a tangible form, I have good news. All awarded images are published by Bird Eye Books in a hard-back coffee-table book, which is now available on the contest’s website, with a foreword by Dame Judi Dench.