‘I was gobsmacked’: Cobram local wins BirdLife award for stunning backyard photo

“I was gobsmacked, I couldn’t believe it, I mean I was up against professional photographers,” she said.

“Because I like birds, I’m invested in trying to help protect them, so it’s for the fun of it being in a competition, but it’s also a supportive thing for BirdLife Australia.”

BirdLife Australia is a non-for-profit organisation that protects endangered birds through various campaigns.

Each year the organisation holds an Australia-wide photography competition and this year it received the highest number of submissions yet, with 6631 entries.

Among the nine different award categories, Jen Tom entered into the ‘backyard birds’ category, taking a photo of a friarbird sitting on her garden gate, which was made by a friend with gardening shovels, shears and other things.

“They're prehistoric looking birds, they're grey with no feathers on their head and a knobby bit on their beak,” Mrs Tom said.

“The bird sat on the gate just above the tap part and looked exactly like the tap, sort of mirror image of it, I couldn't have set up that photo if I’d tried.”

Mrs Tom said she began taking photos five years ago, starting during COVID in 2020, when she sat in the lovely Magnolia tree in her backyard trying to get a photo of a blue wren.

“I’d seen them next to a pink flower and I thought the blue and the pink together, that would be beautiful,” she said.

“I sat there for days on end, and in the end I said, I think I need a camera, so I don’t actually have to sit in the bush.”

Mrs Tom has a long list of birds she wants to photograph; at the very top are hummingbirds in the Caribbean and the southern emu-wren.

She produces a calendar every year of photos she has taken of birds, getting it printed at Murray Valley printers in Cobram

“I sell them and I don't keep any money, I give any profits made to Birdlife Australia,” Mrs Tom said.

Jen Tom’s calendars are available for purchase at the Cobram vet clinic and Shear Kaos hairdressers.