Guides · Updated 1 November 2026

Bird photo contests 2026–27: crop rules, minimum file sizes and deadlines

None of the big wildlife photo contests below bans cropping a bird photo. What decides whether a cropped bird gets through is size and proof: how many pixels are left on the long edge, and whether you can send the untouched RAW file if you're shortlisted. Two of the biggest close soon: Wildlife Photographer of the Year on 3 December 2026 and Bird Photographer of the Year on 13 December.

Deadlines, crop rules and minimum sizes at a glance

Checked against each contest's own rules on 1 November 2026, soonest deadline first. Where a contest hasn't announced its next dates, the table shows last year's. Rules can change between editions, so read the official page (linked in the next sections) before you enter.

“Allowed” means the rules list cropping as a permitted edit. “No rule on cropping” means they don't mention it but accept processing that doesn't mislead. The BigPicture Natural World competition, run by the California Academy of Sciences, has ended: its site says it “will not continue the annual competition”. The BirdLife Australia Photography Awards (2026 entries closed 13 July) aren't listed because their rules weren't available to check.

The next three deadlines

• Wildlife Photographer of the Year: 11:30 GMT on Thursday 3 December 2026. That's 6:30 a.m. in New York, 7:30 p.m. in Singapore and 10:30 p.m. in Sydney. Photos must have been taken after October 2021, and entry is free if you're 18 to 26.
• Bird Photographer of the Year: 23:59 GMT on Sunday 13 December 2026, which is 6:59 p.m. in New York and the morning of 14 December in Asia and Australia. Entry credits go from £35 to £40 per 25 entries on 8 December. Photos taken before 1 January 2021 aren't eligible.
• Sony World Photography Awards, Single Image: 16:00 GMT on Tuesday 5 January 2027, for photos taken in 2026. Up to three entries are free.

What the rules mean for a cropped bird photo

• Crop the full-size original. Finalists are asked for the full-size file, and Wildlife Photographer of the Year says it must “match the colour and cropping of the JPEG submitted at entry. Please do not upscale.” A crop cut from a downsized export can't be rebuilt at full size later.
• Check the long edge, not the megapixels. Nearly every size rule counts pixels on the longest side: 1,920 at Wildlife Photographer of the Year and NANPA, 3,000 at Audubon and 3,500 for Australian Geographic's shortlist. Smithsonian's entry rule says “at least 2,000 pixels wide”, so, read literally, a vertical crop needs 2,000 pixels across its short side.
• Never enlarge a crop to reach a minimum. Australian Geographic wants 3,500 pixels “without interpolation”, and Wildlife Photographer of the Year says “Please do not upscale.” AI upscaling is out too: Wildlife Photographer of the Year bans any process that “adds new image content to the photograph via AI algorithms”.
• Keep the RAW, and the frames around it. Seven of the 11 contests require the RAW file or an untouched camera JPEG from finalists, and the other four can ask for it. Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Bird Photographer of the Year may also ask for the frames taken before and after. Both, along with the British Wildlife Photography Awards, accept DNG only if it's your camera's own RAW format, so don't convert to DNG and delete the originals.
• Crop out distractions instead of cloning them. Bird Photographer of the Year and the British Wildlife Photography Awards prohibit cloning or spot removal except for dust spots and lens dirt. Wildlife Photographer of the Year bans removing objects, and Audubon disqualifies anything added, removed or altered by “painting over, cloning, or blurring”. Cropping a twig or a fence post out of the frame is the accepted way to lose it.
• AI noise reduction is fine at some contests, not all. Bird Photographer of the Year and the British Wildlife Photography Awards allow AI Denoise and Sharpening tools. Nine of the 11 contests ban AI-generated images outright.

Worked example: is this crop big enough?

Take a 24-megapixel camera (6,000 × 4,000 pixels) and a bird that fills 10% of the frame's width: 600 pixels from beak to tail. Here's how four framings of the same bird measure up, each a 3:2 crop cut from the full-size original:

So with this bird, a crop where it fills a fifth of the width works for Wildlife Photographer of the Year and just meets Audubon's 3,000 pixels, but Australian Geographic's 3,500 pixels needs a looser crop. The two tighter crops are fine for a screen or a club night, but too small for Wildlife Photographer of the Year's 1,920-pixel entry unless you enlarge them, and its rules ask finalists not to upscale. If birds are that small in your frames, the fix is in the field: a longer lens, a teleconverter or getting closer (how much you can crop, and when to get closer instead).

To see how many pixels a bird will cover with your camera, lens and distance before you go out, try the free bird reach calculator.

How far can you crop and still qualify?

The share of the frame's width that a horizontal crop has to keep to reach each size, on four common cameras:

Image sizes of the Canon EOS R6 Mark II, Sony A7 IV, Canon EOS R5 and Sony A7R V. A vertical crop from a horizontal frame takes its long edge from the frame's height, so 3,500 pixels uses 88% of a 24-megapixel frame's height, 75% of a 33-megapixel one, 64% of a 45-megapixel one and 55% of a 61-megapixel one.

Nature's Best Photography's “no more than 50%” can be read two ways. If it means area, a 24-megapixel frame can be cropped to about 4,243 × 2,828 pixels; if it means width, to 3,000 × 2,000. Its guidelines don't say which, so ask the organisers before relying on the looser reading.

Contest by contest

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2027

Run by the Natural History Museum in London, it closes at 11:30 GMT on 3 December 2026. Cropping is on the list of permitted adjustments, along with HDR, stitched panoramas and focus stacking; “adding, moving or removing objects” is not allowed, and nor is AI that adds image content. Entries are JPEGs “at 1920 pixels along the longest dimension”. Finalists send RAW files (or untouched JPEGs with frames from before and after) and a full-resolution file. Rules

Bird Photographer of the Year 2027

It closes at 23:59 GMT on 13 December 2026, and credits rise from £35 to £40 per 25 entries on 8 December. The rules don't mention cropping; processing is fine as long as it doesn't deceive. The FAQ asks for uploads of at most 2,000 pixels and 2 MB, with no minimum, though you “should aim for at least 1600px”. Cloning and spot removal are banned except for dust spots and lens dirt, AI tools are banned except Denoise and Sharpening, and finalists send RAW files. Rules · FAQ

Sony World Photography Awards 2027 (Single Image)

Up to three photos taken in 2026 can be entered free, in ten categories including Natural World & Wildlife; it closes at 16:00 GMT on 5 January 2027. Entries are JPEGs of 1–5 MB, and shortlisted photographers must supply “a high resolution image of at least 5MB and 300ppi”. Manipulation is allowed if you describe it, but every entry must start as a photograph. Rules

Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

Run by the South Australian Museum, it takes photos from Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and the New Guinea region. The 2027 details “will be released soon”; the 2026 contest took entries from 8 December 2025 to 5 February 2026. It has the clearest crop rule of any contest here: “Cropping of any degree is allowed, provided the resulting image can be supplied to the minimum acceptable size for use in the exhibition (3500 pixels on the longest edge without interpolation).” Finalists also send the original raw file or camera JPEG. Rules

Audubon Photography Awards

Birds only. In 2026 it was open to residents of the US and Canada (excluding Quebec) from 15 January to 4 March; the 2027 dates aren't out yet. Cropping counts as normal processing, while stitched panoramas, HDR stacks, flipped images and anything added, removed or cloned are disqualified. Photos must be “at least 3000 pixels wide (for horizontal Photographs) or 3000 pixels tall (for vertical Photographs)”, and Audubon can ask for the original RAW or JPEG, usually within 7 days. Rules

Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

Not a bird contest as such: birds go in Wildlife. The last contest ran from 15 September to 1 December 2025, and on 1 November 2026 the rules page hadn't been updated for a new one. “Cropped photos are eligible in all categories.” Entries must be at least 2,000 pixels wide, and finalists need 3,000 pixels on the longest side plus the original, unedited file. Rules

Nature's Best Photography Awards

The only contest here with a crop limit. Its 2025 guidelines, the latest we could find, accept “cropping of no more than 50%”, disclosed in the caption, and nothing added or taken away “aside from dust spots and minor adjustments”. Entries are JPEGs of 500 KB to 3 MB, and round-two entrants send high-resolution and RAW files. 2025 guidelines (PDF)

British Wildlife Photography Awards

The 2026 contest closed on 7 June, and the 2027 dates aren't out. Its rules match Bird Photographer of the Year's almost word for word: no crop rule, no cloning beyond dust and lens dirt, AI Denoise and Sharpening allowed, and RAW files from finalists. Rules

World Nature Photography Awards

Entries must be “between 1,000 and 3,000 pixels along the longest dimension and no larger than 3 MB”. “Limited digital manipulations” are allowed, composites and adding or removing anything are “strictly forbidden”, and the organisers can ask for RAW files. The last deadline was 30 June 2026. Rules

Nature inFocus Photography Awards

Its winners are announced ahead of the Nature inFocus Festival in Bangalore, India; the 2026 contest took entries from 15 April to 31 May. Uploads are at most 1,920 pixels on the longest side and under 2 MB, the rules say “Basic retouching allowed”, and finalists send RAW files. One rule bird photographers should know: “No photographs of nesting birds”. Rules

NANPA Showcase

For members of NANPA and ASMP only. The 2027 Showcase closed on 22 September 2026. Images need at least 1,920 pixels on the longest side and must be 500 KB to 10 MB; generative AI isn't allowed in any category, and NANPA can ask for original files. Rules

Finding the contenders in a season of photos

BirdFrame is a Mac app that finds and crops every bird in a folder or Apple Photos album from the full-size originals, thousands in one go, and it's free for 50 photos a run.

Questions

Can you crop photos for Wildlife Photographer of the Year?

Yes. Cropping is on its list of permitted adjustments, with no limit. Entries are JPEGs at 1,920 pixels on the long edge. If you're shortlisted, you send the RAW file (or untouched original JPEGs) and a full-resolution file that matches your crop, not upscaled. The 2027 competition closes at 11:30 GMT on 3 December 2026.

How much can you crop a photo for a wildlife photo contest?

Most contests set no limit. Nature's Best Photography's 2025 rules allowed “cropping of no more than 50%”. The real limit is size: Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year allows cropping “of any degree” as long as the finished file is 3,500 pixels on the long edge without enlarging, and Audubon's entries must be at least 3,000 pixels on the long edge.

Do photo contests ask for the RAW file?

Usually, if you're shortlisted. Seven of the 11 contests here require the RAW file or an untouched camera JPEG from finalists, and the other four can ask for it. Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Bird Photographer of the Year and the British Wildlife Photography Awards accept DNG only if it's your camera's native RAW format.

Can I clone out a distracting twig?

Not at most contests. Bird Photographer of the Year and the British Wildlife Photography Awards ban cloning and spot removal except for dust spots and lens dirt, and Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Audubon ban removing anything from the scene. Cropping the twig out of the frame is the accepted way to lose it.

Can I use AI noise reduction on a contest entry?

At some contests. Bird Photographer of the Year and the British Wildlife Photography Awards allow AI Denoise and Sharpening tools. Wildlife Photographer of the Year bans any process that adds new image content through AI, and nine of the 11 contests here ban AI-generated images outright.