Telegraph:

Seasoned wildlife photographers may have some unlikely competition in the form of a traffic camera when it comes to this year’s awards season.

CCTV captured this stunning image of a curious snowy owl in flight above a motorway in Montreal in the Canadian province of Quebec.

The traffic camera, which belongs to the Transport Quebec, captured several images of the white and black-spotted bird on January 3.

Quebec transport minister Robert Poëti tweeted photos of the owl with the caption [translated]: “Magnificent snowy owl picked up by surveillance cameras of the road network on the A-40 in the West of MTL”.

In a Facebook post he added: “An impressive solo was captured in full flight by the surveillance cameras of the road network on highway 40 … in the west of the island of Montreal.