Burnley photographer wins praise at Lancaster Litfest with stunning photograph of elusive cuckoo in Leeds

Eagle-eyed Keith Bannister ruffled a few feathers when he managed to capture a stunning photograph of the elusive bird sat atop a tree trunk in a field near Leeds.

The photograph was one of three winning shots chosen to be displayed in a wildlife exhibition at Litfest, the Lancaster Literature Festival currently being held at The Storey in the city.

Mr Bannister, from Brunshaw Road, only took up photography seriously when he retired from Michelin several years ago.

He said: “I was really pleased with the shot. A lot of people hear a cuckoo but very rarely see them. It’s an iconic bird with a famous call, which lives in Africa for nine months. They only visit the UK to breed.

“A friend of mine has a hide near Leeds and he said there were cuckoos nearby. I had been in the hide for around two hours when I got the shot.”

While not popular with other birds – cuckoos are notorious brood parasites, laying their eggs in other birds’ nests – they are a favourite of Keith’s, who won praise in 2019 for another of his stunning photographs, that time of a rambunctious cuckoo squaring off mid-air with a sedge warbler.

That earned him praise from the Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers' Living World competition.

His prize this time was, not surprisingly, a huge bird book to add to his collection of around 25 similar books.