A dramatic image of northern bald ibises being guided back to Europe’s winter homes—sung into the sky from an ultralight—has won student volunteer Gunnar Hartmann the top prize in Nature’s 2026 Scientist at Work photography competition.
The moment looks almost impossible to stage: a formation of northern bald ibises moving through the sky while a guide sings German from the passenger seat of an ultralight, amplifying the call through a megaphone.
The photograph is by student Gunnar Hartmann. Taken over the olive groves of Jaén in the south of Spain, it won him the overall top spot in Nature’s 2026 Scientist at Work photography competition.
The birds in the picture are part of a migration project aimed at rebuilding a species that was pushed out of the northern foothills of the Alps roughly 400 years ago by poaching and a changing climate. In this effort, Helena Wehner flies behind the pilot, Johannes Fritz. She sings a German song through a megaphone to guide the birds on their way to new winter homes.
Wehner is part of an Austrian conservation group called Waldrappteam—named after the ibis’s local name—working to re-establish a healthy European population once more. The approach relies on close human contact: the ibises are hand-raised by human carers. forming bonds that let the birds follow even the people riding in the aircraft.
Since the project began in 2004, it has built a large following along the birds’ route, attracting fans and support from local communities. The migration spans 50 days and covers 2800 kilometres, running from south-east Germany to south-west Spain.
Hartmann. at the time of the winning shot a science undergraduate at the University of Koblenz in Germany. joined Waldrappteam as a volunteer in 2024. In an announcement about the awards, he said the image brought up “so many emotions” for him. “I can smell the air from this day and imagine the sounds,” he added.
The competition also recognized work far from the ibis skies. One winning image from deep in the Red Sea off the Saudi Arabian coast was taken by marine biologist Uli Kunz. It shows scientists installing an incubation chamber over a coral reef ecosystem. The project aims to understand how different corals—Acropora here—react to rising water temperatures caused by climate change by measuring their oxygen output.
Another aquatic photograph. taken by Robert Harcourt. focuses on biologist Michael Doane holding his breath and diving down to carefully skim the skin of a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) with a syringe at Ningaloo Reef off the coast of Western Australia. collecting a sample of the microorganisms that dwell there.
Not all the winning shots point to “clean” ecosystems. In Ontario. Canada. algal blooms over Dog Lake—where Microcystis aeruginosa and Dolichospermum flos-aquae form a “toxic. vile-smelling layer of rot” each summer—were captured from above by photographer Haolun (Allen) Tian. a PhD student at Queen’s University in Kingston. Canada. The thick green bloom kills fish and clogs water supplies. and the boat in the image shows scientists taking water samples for environmental DNA analysis.
The underwater-and-outdoors theme continues in a final winning entry: Shayanta Chowdhury photographed an entomologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana observing a yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) under a microscope. Scientists are studying how the drug nitisinone can be used to kill blood-feeding insects. In the set-up, the mosquito has been fed a sugar mixture spiked with both the drug and a fluorescent dye.
For Hartmann’s award-winning frame, the stakes are written into the biology itself. The ibis story—once driven out. now guided back—comes down to a simple but demanding reality: getting birds to follow is the whole job. In his image. the work looks like music moving through the air. carried by megaphone and wingbeat. toward winter homes the species is trying to claim again.
northern bald ibis Geronticus eremita Waldrappteam Helena Wehner Johannes Fritz Gunnar Hartmann Nature’s 2026 Scientist at Work wildlife conservation migration Jaén Red Sea corals incubation chamber whale shark Ningaloo Reef Dog Lake algal bloom Microcystis aeruginosa Dolichospermum flos-aquae yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti nitisinone
So they basically trained the birds like pets? wild.
I don’t get how a photo “guided home” anything. Like are the birds just following the sound or the guy singing? Either way, 2800 km seems fake news-y.
Wait, northern bald ibises… aren’t those already in Africa or something? If they were pushed out of the Alps 400 years ago, wouldn’t they’ve been back by now? Also Germany to Spain on an ultralight sounds terrifying, like what if the birds just don’t listen.
Nature award for a dude with a camera while people are literally megaphoning at birds. I mean, cool photo but it’s also like, if humans have to hand-raise them and carry them on flights then… is it really “natural”? And poaching and climate did this, sure, but I’m skeptical on the “400 years” part because my cousin said ibises were seen in the US in the 90s lol.