Photographer Turns a Bird’s Bad Day Into a Comedy Wildlife Awards Victory
The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards has unveiled the Sterna People’s Choice Award winner for the 2025 competition. Photographer Alison Tuck from the United Kingdom earned top honors for her hilarious portrait of a gannet getting a face full of grass and weeds.
Competition organizers note that Tuck’s well-timed photo “convincingly” won the public vote, besting the other 39 shortlisted photos from the 2025 awards.
“Winning the Sterna People’s Choice Award means a lot to me,” Tuck says. “It was really exciting to get into the finals with my gannet and I was honored to get a Highly Commended.
“However, being awarded this category is something else and I am really chuffed and grateful to all the people who voted for me — not forgetting to mention how much fun I had — it is the Nikon Wildlife Comedy Awards after all!”
Coincidentally, Tuck notes that she captured the popular photo with the Nikon Z8. Tuck’s first cameras were a pair of analog Olympus OM1 and OM2 SLRs. Her first digital camera was a Kodak point-and-shoot, and her first DSLR, purchased before going on holiday in Borneo, was a Nikon D70.
“Since then, I have always been a Nikon camera user,” Tuck adds.
It was when visiting Nikon’s booth at the London Photography Show last year and seeing the prior year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards winners that Tuck decided she wanted to enter and scour her catalog for suitable photos.
“My gannet image was taken on a very breezy day in Yorkshire on the Bempton Cliffs. There was an onshore wind which meant we couldn’t shoot from the boat, however the wind played to our Cavour as the gannets were being pushed towards and up the cliffs giving us ample opportunity to get some lovely close-up images of them collecting grass for their nests. Thank goodness,” the photographer explains. “I love taking lots of photos especially of wildlife, from a tiny ant to a large elephant on land, a small crab to an orca whale in the sea or a tiny sun bird to a soaring raptor in the air, they all have their own history to tell within the world and for me capturing their stories is something very special.”
For her victory, Tuck has won a new Think Tank photography bag and a large format print of her winning photo printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl paper, courtesy of Sterna.
Photographers inspired by Tuck and the other excellent winners and finalists from the 2025 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards can enter the 2026 edition until June 30. Entry is free to all photographers, whether amateur or professional, can enter. Although the competition is hosted by Nikon, it is open to photographers using any camera brand. Complete contest rules and regulations are available on the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards website.
Image credits: Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards, Alison Tuck
