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3,330 Photographs, 15 Winners: Wiki Loves Earth 2026 in Bangladesh

5 min read By @Yahya Wiki Loves Earth

Wiki Loves Earth 2026 in Bangladesh has closed with 3,330 photographs uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The jury has finished scoring, and we can now announce the results.

Fifteen images take the top places, and all fifteen will go forward to the international round of Wiki Loves Earth. Alongside them, we are announcing something new this year: a special mention for the best nature and wildlife photograph that could not compete for a prize.

How the photographs were judged

A field of 3,330 files is more than any jury can look at properly, so the organising team ran a first round of evaluation ourselves while the competition was running. We checked entries against the contest rules, set aside duplicates and out-of-scope uploads, and narrowed the field to a shortlist of around 500 photographs.

That shortlist went to a jury of four experienced photographers and Wikimedians, who scored every image on it and produced the final ranking.

The winning photographs

A little egret wading in water lit gold by low sun
1. A little egret hunting in golden water at last light, Bilvala, Rajshahi. Photo by A. H. M Ibnul Arabi, file on Commons.
Aerial top-down view of wooden boats packed together on a river
2. Wooden boats clustered on the Buriganga River in Dhaka, seen from directly overhead. Photo by Muhammad Amdad Hossain, file on Commons.
A common myna and a woodpecker at opposite sides of a hole in a tree trunk
3. A common myna and a woodpecker facing off over the same tree hollow, National Botanical Garden, Dhaka. Photo by Mahmud Hasan, file on Commons.
Two chestnut-tailed starlings perched side by side on a bare branch
4. Two chestnut-tailed starlings on a branch in Bhawal National Park. Photo by Mojahid Mottakin, file on Commons.
A long-tailed paradise flycatcher perched in forest undergrowth
5. A Blyth’s paradise flycatcher in Hazarikhil Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo by Owlet273, file on Commons.
A common kingfisher lifting off the surface of water, wings spread and droplets flying
6. A common kingfisher rising out of the water after a bath, National Botanical Garden, Dhaka. Photo by Ashraf, file on Commons.
A rhesus macaque sitting among mangrove vegetation
7. A rhesus macaque at Karamjal in the Sundarbans. Photo by MD Sajjad Hossain, file on Commons.
A rufous treepie reaching out in mid-air towards a flying mantis
8. A rufous treepie lunging at a flying mantis, National Botanical Garden, Dhaka. Photo by Ashraf, file on Commons.
Dredging boats and pipes working a shallow river channel stripped of sand
9. Sand dredging on the Dholai River, known locally as the Piyain, at Companiganj, Sylhet. Dredging on this scale damages river habitat, cuts fish populations and speeds up erosion. Photo by Ayman Nakib Badhan, file on Commons.
A blue-throated barbet at a nest hole with food in its beak
10. A blue-throated barbet returning to the nest with food for its chicks, Rajshahi. Photo by Shadab Ishtiyak, file on Commons.
A pair of yellow eyes looking out from a dark opening in a tree
11. A pair of yellow eyes keeping watch from a tree, National Botanical Garden, Dhaka. Photo by Sifat Sharker, file on Commons.
Wooden boats lined up along the bank of the Buriganga River
12. Wooden boats along the Buriganga, Dhaka. Photo by Muhammad Amdad Hossain, file on Commons.
Two golden orioles at a nest feeding a chick
13. A pair of golden orioles feeding their chick, Bilvala wetland, Rajshahi. Photo by Mohd. Asfak Hossain Sweet, file on Commons.
A jungle myna on a branch of a flowering silk-cotton tree
14. A jungle myna perched on a flowering silk-cotton branch. Photo by Mojahid Mottakin, file on Commons.
A blossom-headed parakeet perched among green leaves
15. A blossom-headed parakeet in Satchari National Park. In Bangladesh this bird is found only in the evergreen forest and tea estates of Sylhet division, where it feeds on flower petals, fruit, buds and grain. Photo by Akthar Hossain Rofy, file on Commons.

Why some of the best photographs are not on this list

Wiki Loves Earth is a photography contest about protected areas. Every entry has to come from inside one of Bangladesh’s protected areas, and that condition sits alongside the photographic criteria rather than behind them. When we verified the locations of the highest-scoring entries, several images that had placed inside the top 20 turned out to have been taken outside any protected area boundary. They had earned their scores from the jury on photographic merit. We still had to take them out of the results.

This is the single most common reason a strong Wiki Loves Earth entry fails in Bangladesh, and it is usually not carelessness. A photographer spends a morning with a kingfisher at a pond behind their house, or finds a flycatcher in a patch of village forest, and the bird does not know that it is standing a few kilometres outside a sanctuary boundary. The picture is real wildlife photography. It is simply not a picture of a protected area.

A special mention, introduced this year

To give those photographs somewhere to go, we introduced a special mention this year for the best nature or wildlife photograph submitted that was taken outside a protected area. It carries no place in the main ranking and does not go to the international round, but it recognises work we were otherwise setting aside.

The first special mention goes to MD Sajjad Hossain for a spot-tailed pit viper photographed in Chattogram. Sajjad also placed seventh with his rhesus macaque from the Sundarbans.

A green pit viper coiled on a branch
Special mention: a spot-tailed pit viper photographed in Chattogram. Photo by MD Sajjad Hossain, file on Commons.

What happens next

The fifteen winning images now go to the international round of Wiki Loves Earth, where they will be judged against winners from every other participating country.

Our thanks go to the four jurors for working through the shortlist, and to all 3,330 uploads and the people behind them. One request for next year: before you plan a trip, check the official list of protected areas in Bangladesh and confirm that the spot you are heading to is on it. It is the difference between a photograph that competes and a photograph we have to set aside.

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