Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife to announce winners of Burrowing Owl Photo contest
Public invited to ceremony to be held Saturday at Rotary Park
Trending
With more than 100 submissions in hand, the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife will unveil the winners of this year's Burrowing Owl Photo Contest this weekend.
This Saturday at Rotary Park in the Cape starting at noon, CCFW has invited the community to take in the photo contest awards ceremony.
The annual contest showcases the talents of amateur photographers and celebrates the city's commitment to wildlife conservation. The grand prize-winning photo will be featured on the official T-shirt for the 2026 Burrowing Owl Festival. This year, the contest drew an impressive 165 entries, reflecting the community's deep appreciation for local wildlife and creative expression.
"It was a great turnout this year," said CCFW spokesperson Janet Windisch. "Every year we get amazing photos. Just incredible photography. We had more than 60 additional entries compared to last year."
The ceremony will be emceed by WFTX Community Correspondent Bella Line, alongside Dawn Andrews from Cape Coral's Rest Estate Department.
Awards will be presented for the adult category (18-plus) and youth category (7 to 17). CCFW saw more than a 50% increase in submission from the youth division this year.
This year's winners were selected by a panel of judges that included Cape Coral City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn, NBC-2 meteorologist Rob Duns and Darlayne Coughlin, who was the 2024 contest grand prize winner.
Windisch said the contest drew lots of attention on social media as well, where numerous users posted their own photos of owls in their neighborhood for all to see, even if it wasn't a contest-submitted photo.
Awards Ceremony
CCFW has invited the community to take in the photo contest awards ceremony to take place this Saturday at Rotary Park starting at noon.
First-, second-, and third-place prizes will be awarded to the highest-scoring photograph from the adult division and youth division. Prizes include CCFW swag and a one-year membership to the group. The winning youth image will be used for the 2026 Ground Owl Day T-shirt.
"Everyone was showing how cute their owls are and sharing their photos," she said. "Participants were allowed to submit just one photo, and were permitted to crop; make minor adjustments to color, white balance, lighting levels and curves, shadows and highlight, saturation, contrast, sharpness; moderate dodging and burning; removal of dust sports and moderate reduction of image noise. Photographs that had been digitally or otherwise altered beyond standard optimization would have been disqualified.
Judges scored eligible photographs on technical quality (30%), originality (30%), and artistic merit (40%).
There will be first-, second-, and third-place prizes given to the highest-scoring photograph from the adult division and youth division. Prizes include CCFW swag and a one-year membership to the group. The winning youth image will be used for the 2026 Ground Owl Day T-shirt.
Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing habitats for protected wildlife species while educating the community about Cape Coral's unique wildlife resources.
"It's great to see the support from the community and photographers for this contest," Windisch said. "We had great support this year from the city as well."
To learn more about CCFW, visit ccfriendsofwildlife.org or call 239-980-2593.
Rotary Park is at 5505 Rose Garden Road.