Here are the best bird photos of the year from around the world

A bar-tailed godwit photographed in the late evening on a beach in Gijón, Spain.

A mallard duckling swimming in a pond in Prague, Czech Republic.

A Eurasian nuthatch attracted to a garden by peanuts.

A group of hooded cranes flying through a streak of sunshine in Japan.

A southern rockhopper penguin returning to its colony on the Falkland Islands.

A young American oystercatcher learning to catch crustaceans with its parent.

A gentoo penguin catching a wave on the Falkland Islands.

A swallow flying through a broken stable window.

Two red-billed oxpeckers perched on a hippo in South Luangwa National Park.

Atlantic puffins fighting on the cliffs of Hornøya Island in Norway.

A hamerkop throwing a toad into the air in Zimanaga Private Reserve, South Africa.

A European shag diving underwater in search of food.

Black-tailed godwits engaged in a territorial battle in India's Manglajodi wetland.

A great cormorant feeding on a fish.

A squacco heron in flight over a pond in Italy.

A white-tailed sea eagle scaring off a red fox from some nearby prey.

Two Antarctic emperor penguins looking over their chick.

The breath of a black-and-white warbler showing in the cold morning air.

A wasp that's landed on a fiery-throated hummingbird in Costa Rica.

Red-crowned cranes performing a dual honking ritual and elaborate dance in Japan.

A great grey owl hunting in the woods of Minnesota.

A black-crowned night heron that's found a fishing perch in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour.

An infant cygnet resting its head on its sleeping mother.

A long-tailed tit drinking from a melting icicle at Lake Kussharo.

A male mute swan wooing a female mute swan.

A juvenile European shag dives down its mother's throat to look for food.

A great cormorant about to swallow its prey.

A southern giant petrel scavenging from the remains of a king penguin.

A Eurasian jackdaw sitting on a fallow deer.

Male and female tufted ducks floating on the water.

Two grey herons picking though scraps in Amsterdam's fish market.