The invention discloses a multi-source imaging load for an unmanned aerial vehicle. The multi-source imaging load comprises a visible light imaging module, an infrared imaging module, a laser indication module, a central processing module, a target detection module and a video compression module, wherein the central processing module directly controls the laser indication module, acquires video data from the visible light imaging module and the infrared imaging module, sends the video data with the native resolution to the video compression module after converting the video data into data in the same data format, sends down-sampled video data to the target detection module, and outputs compressed video data returned by the video compression module and target coordinate data returned by the target detection module to an external interface. The load has the advantages of small size, low weight, strong function and the like and can fully meet requirements of day-and-night photoelectric detection at middle and close distances, and convenience can be brought to usage under different environment and application conditions through matched usage of multiple loads.