The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

These heart-warming photograph show an incredible bond between a wild lioness and the men fighting to save her species. The picture show Sirga – a 110lb lioness – and her adopted pride Valentin Gruener (not pictured) and Mikkel Legarth. Incredibly she treats the two men just like she would other lions and with their help she can now hunt for prey on her own. As a cub she was driven out from a pride and rescued by German and Danish duo Valentin and Mikkel who could not stand by and watch her die. She is now a beacon for hoped success of the Modisa Wildlife Project, founded in Botswana, Africa, by Valentin and Mikkel with the hope of saving the lion population. (Photo by Caters News)

The battle by Jose Garcia, US. Category: bird behaviour. A great white heron (Ardea herodias occidentalis) fighting a green snake in the Florida Everglades. The fight lasted for nearly 20 minutes with the heron having to release its prey. (Photo by Jose Garcia/2017 Bird Photographer of the Year Awards)

This is a bearded tit bird, diving for food. Photo by Edwin Kats.

Creative imagery, gold winner: Sprats and Bread, Ruediger Schulz, Germany. (Photo by Ruediger Schulz/2021 Bird Photographer of the Year)

Cloud inversion taken at Sunrise in Mam Tor, Derbyshire, UK on August 30, 2016. (Photo by David Zdanowicz/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A person takes a photo of the skyline with the Shard building in the center, at sunset, from Greenwich Park in London, Tuesday, November 24, 2020. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Wire via AP Photo)

A person stops to take a picture of the sun setting behind the San Francisco skyline as seen from Grizzly Peak Boulevard in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. (Photo by Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP Photo)