These beautiful photos capture how a remote island community safely shepherds its rare seabirds to the ocean.

The Azores hosts three-quarters of the global population of Cory鈥檚 shearwaters, which nest in burrows and clifftops around the Atlantic archipelago. Chicks stay in their nests all spring and summer until they have grown big enough to attempt their first flight, seen in the image above.

Once ready, the young birds take flight by night to avoid predators, using the moon and stars to navigate to the ocean. But it isn鈥檛 just predators these birds should be wary of, photographer Andrea Zanenga discovered when he visited Corvo. The tiny Portuguese island has just 430 human inhabitants, but is home to the world鈥檚 largest colony of Cory鈥檚 shearwaters.

During their fledging window in late October and early November, the young shearwaters are easily confused by artificial lights. The seabirds can鈥檛 take off from ground level, so if they crash, they remain stuck on the ground, vulnerable to attack or starvation.

鈥淭hese are young birds, 3 months old, and most of them are doing their first flight,鈥� says T芒nia Pipa, a marine biologist at the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds.

鈥淭hey get lost. If you have a point with light pollution, they see it as guidance and go to that place, and get disorientated.鈥� On the worst nights, Corvo residents might find dozens of stranded birds on the streets of the island鈥檚 only settlement, Vila do Corvo.

An Azores-wide campaign known as SOS Cagarro was launched in 1995 to rescue fallen shearwaters. Volunteers join night walks to spot stranded birds and place them in artificial nests (above).

The birds are released the following day from nearby clifftops.

But the residents of Corvo have gone one better. For five nights during the peak fledging season, all public lighting in Vila do Corvo is switched off from 9pm until midnight to help the birds navigate safely out to the ocean.

Corvo is the only island in the Azores to operate such a self-imposed blackout, leaving it free of light pollution. 鈥淲hen you see this sky with a lot of stars, you feel a little bit smaller,鈥� says Zanenga.

A remarkable fossil found in China raises the possibility that some of the earliest bird species never took wing or abandoned flight almost immediately after they had evolved the ability.

at the Chinese Academy of Sciences says the discovery of the new flightless species, Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, could mean that powered flight didn鈥檛 drive the evolution of birds鈥� unique anatomy at all.

鈥淭his new fossil changes our assumption about what a Jurassic bird looked like,鈥� says Wang.

Recent discoveries are disrupting the view that the evolution of birds and flight proceeded in a straight line, including another recently announced bird-like dinosaur, also found in China, that had evolved to fly but emerged from a completely different lineage.

The almost-complete new fossil, which is about 148 million to 150 million years old, was discovered in August 2024 near Yangyuang village, Fujian Province, and has been named by Wang and his colleagues after Yuezhuo, a mythological Chinese bird.

When alive, Y. yangyuanensis was around half a metre tall, weighing just over 800 grams 鈥� probably as big as a large crow, Wang says. He suspects the creature most likely lived in a swampy environment and was probably a good runner.

After comparing the ancient bird鈥檚 anatomy with nearly 400 living birds, the researchers concluded Y. yangyuanensis is most like modern ground-dwelling pheasants. These modern birds have forelimbs shorter than their hindlimbs, and Y. yangyuanensis did, too. While pheasants can fly in short bursts, they are effectively ground-dwellers.

The aerial abilities of some other early birds, including Archaeopteryx, are sometimes questioned, but they have forelimbs longer than their hindlimbs, and than Y. yangyuanensis.

Y. yangyuanensis also had a distinctive sickle-shaped claw on its second toe that was 鈥渉ighly functional鈥�, says Wang, and probably used in prey capture. It was very similar in appearance to the claws of its distant relatives, including Velociraptor. Modern birds have lost these claws.

Unlike modern birds, Y. yangyuanensis had a long tail, similar to Archaeopteryx. It also had closely packed, serrated teeth like those typically present in deinonychosaur dinosaurs.

Fossil mammal with reptile-like teeth changes picture of our evolution

Unlike most modern mammals, which get just two sets of teeth in their lifetime, an ancient species from the Cretaceous, found in China, appears to have had the ability to replace its teeth throughout its life

But in other anatomical features, Y. yangyuanensis resembles other birds. Its hip bones and fibula 鈥� one of the lower leg bones 鈥� closely mirror those of later Cretaceous birds, says Wang.

The mix of dinosaur and bird features present in Y. yangyuanensis demonstrates that the bird body plan wasn鈥檛 a steady progression towards flight optimisation, say the researchers 鈥� particularly given that their analysis suggests Archaeopteryx, a stronger flier, was actually more primitive than Y. yangyuanensis.

Rather, they say, bird evolution was a more complex and rapid process than previously thought. It saw early species almost immediately explore different niches and specialisations, including lifestyles that didn鈥檛 involve flying. This challenges the notion that the early evolution of the avian body plan was driven almost exclusively by the selective pressures of flight, Wang says.

鈥淸Y. yangyuanensis] exhibits a striking 鈥榤osaic鈥� of primitive and derived features 鈥� blending classic avian traits with distinct characteristics inherited from non-[avian] dinosaurs,鈥� he says.

This dramatic shot of a northern gannet diving for prey bested 24,000 other images to win the overall prize in the .

The photo was taken off Shetland, UK, as the bird hunted for fish to feed its offspring. When gannets spot fish, they turn to fly into the wind, stretch out their wings as brakes, precisely adjust their position and then dive-bomb into the water with wings tucked at speeds of up to 86 kilometres per hour.

They have evolved to handle this dramatic moment, with muscles that lock their vertebrae into position, air sacs in the face and chest to protect from impact, and nostrils that prevent jets of water entering.

鈥淭he handsome northern gannets lead a dualistic existence,鈥� said Spiers in an announcement about the win. 鈥淚n the nest, their newborn is carefully nurtured, and a couple鈥檚 bond is reinforced by pointing sharp beaks to the sky as they tenderly stroke their white necks together. In flight, hunting mode takes over, and piercing yellow eyes, fringed with blue circles, scour the sea for prey.鈥�

Spiers had been diving in the chilly, 10掳C (50掳F) waters of Shetland when he realised the sun was visible from his position under the sea. 鈥淓ven in summer, sunshine is far from guaranteed in this remote British archipelago, so my creative engine started firing when the sunball was visible from underwater. I envisioned the shot of the gannet diving straight through the middle of it, and dedicated my entire dive to capturing that single frame,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he gannets were diving all around me, but I refused to be distracted and kept my camera pointed at the sun. After a long wait, a gannet finally dived through in the perfect spot and I met the bird as it careened under the sea. The moment was over in a split second.鈥�

A bronze award in the prize鈥檚 portrait category was given to David Stowe, who captured this western parotia (Parotia sefilata), below, dancing in the dark rainforest of West Papua, Indonesia, in a dazzling attempt to attract a female.

Donald Chin photographed this protective tawny frogmouth (Podargus strigoides), shown below, near Perth in Australia. As rain falls in the forest, this fledgling seems to raise a wing to cover its siblings. Chin won a gold award in the 鈥渂ird behaviour鈥� category of the prize.

The below image by Alex Pansier features hundreds, if not thousands, of guillemots (Uria aalge) in flight over Horn酶ya, Norway. The repeating shapes have an Escher-like quality. Pansier took a silver award in the 鈥渂irds in flight鈥� category of the prize.

Luca Eberle from Italy photographed the 鈥� unfortunately killed, stuffed and discarded 鈥� Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) shown below in Malta. Authorities inspect taxidermy samples to catch illegal hunting of protected species like this one, causing some collectors to dispose of older specimens. Here, a BirdLife Malta officer is shown finding the stuffed vulture, which had been left by the roadside. Eberle won a bronze award in the 鈥渃onservation, single image鈥� category for this shot.

Another underwater shot, from Romain Barats, features gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) feeding in Charcot Bay, Antarctica, below. Barats was snorkelling when a raft of gentoo penguins appeared to fish and feed on krill. 鈥淭hese iconic birds are incredibly curious so they went straight to me to evaluate if I could be a threat or not. They spent a while swimming so fast around me,鈥� he said in an announcement about the competition, in which he won a bronze award in the 鈥渂irds in the environment鈥� category.

精东传媒s have tracked the eye movements of a bird in flight for the first time, revealing that pigeons in the air lock their eyes in place rather than looking around. The behaviour may help them control their flight, but it could also leave them more vulnerable to predators.

If animals on the ground want to look at something, they move their head or eyes to fix their gaze on it, then use rapid and sometimes wide-ranging movements of the pupil, known as saccades, to give a stable view of the object relative to its surroundings. But no one really knows what happens when birds are flying.

To find out, at the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues designed a lightweight rig of mirrors and cameras that can be attached to the head of a common pigeon (Columba livia) as it flies, as well as a small backpack that houses a camera control board and battery.

They then trained six pigeons to fly between two perches about 20 metres apart indoors, and three to fly some 25 metres outdoors to return to a coop.

During test flights in both environments, the head-mounted eye-tracking system revealed that after take-off, the birds increased their pupil size and adopted a fixed and consistent eye position in their heads, essentially locking their eyes in place.

鈥淲henever they start flying, the eyes rotate forward on average,鈥� says Ros.

Free newsletter

Sign up to The Earth Edition

Sign up to newsletter

If their heads moved, their eyes moved in synchrony with them. The fixed eye position aligns with the primary horizontal axis of the birds鈥� vision and their vestibular system 鈥� the sensory network that controls balance and spatial orientation.

鈥淧igeons have been shown capable of moving their eyes independently and that they can be moved by a maximum amplitude of about 15 degrees,鈥� says at the University of Birmingham, UK. 鈥淭herefore, to show that, during flight, eye movements are less than 1 degree does suggest that the birds are actively stabilising the position of their eyes when in flight.鈥�

Why they are locking their eyes isn鈥檛 certain, says Ros. He thinks the alignment with the vestibular system suggests the behaviour may help pigeons distinguish their own motion from external motion 鈥� such as the movement of a tree鈥檚 branches, or a car or predator 鈥� to help them balance and navigate.

It鈥檚 also possible that reducing eye movements minimises the computational load on the brain. 鈥淭he world during flight moves a lot faster than it does during non-flight,鈥� he says.

Eye movements give pigeons a , but Ros says locking their eyes into a forward-facing position is likely to reduce this, leaving a larger blind spot behind them where they couldn鈥檛 see predators.

He is curious about what pigeon eyes would do in other situations, because all the tests were done when the birds were low to the ground. 鈥淚t might be different if pigeons were flying higher up, where there aren鈥檛 lots of objects rushing past,鈥� says Ros. He also wonders what would happen when pigeons fly in flocks. 鈥淲ould they look at other pigeons? At predators? Or at something on the horizon?鈥�

Martin thinks other birds might also stabilise their eye position during flight, including predators. When in pursuit of prey, , he says. 鈥淭his presumably would require the peregrine to fix the position of their eyes rather than move them about.鈥�

Poaching and a changing climate forced the northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) out of the northern foothills of the Alps around 400 years ago. But now they are on their way back.

This photograph shows Helena Wehner flying in the passenger seat of an ultralight aircraft, singing a German song through a megaphone to guide the birds on their way to their new winter homes. Wehner, behind pilot Johannes Fritz, is part of an Austrian conservation group known as Waldrappteam 鈥� named after the ibis鈥檚 local name 鈥� which is trying to establish a healthy European population once more.

The birds are hand-raised by human carers and form bonds, which means they are happy to follow people even when they are riding in the aircraft. Since its inception in 2004, the migration project has amassed numerous followers and fans from local communities along the birds鈥� route. The 50-day journey covers 2800 kilometres from south-east Germany to south-west Spain.

The stunning shot of the formation flying over the olive groves of Ja茅n in the south of Spain was taken by student Gunnar Hartmann and won him the overall top spot in . Hartmann joined the conservation team as a volunteer in 2024 while a science undergraduate at the University of Koblenz in Germany. In an announcement about the awards, Hartmann said the image brought up 鈥渟o many emotions鈥� for him. 鈥�I can smell the air from this day and imagine the sounds,鈥� he added.

Other winning photographs in the 精东传媒 At Work competition include this image from deep in the Red Sea off the Saudi Arabian coast, below, taken by marine biologist Uli Kunz. It shows scientists installing an incubation chamber over a coral reef ecosystem. The project aims to understand how different corals 鈥� Acropora here 鈥� react to rising water temperatures caused by climate change by measuring their oxygen output.

The winning image below, taken by Robert Harcourt, shows biologist Michael Doane holding his breath and diving down to carefully skim the skin of a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) with a syringe at Ningaloo Reef off the coast of Western Australia, collecting a sample of the microorganisms that dwell there.

Another winning aquatic image, this time shot from above, shows algal blooms on Dog Lake in Ontario, Canada. The Microcystis aeruginosa and Dolichospermum flos-aquae create a 鈥渢oxic, vile-smelling layer of rot鈥� on the lake each summer, according to photographer Haolun (Allen) Tian, a PhD student at Queen鈥檚 University in Kingston, Canada. The thick green bloom kills fish and clogs water supplies. The boat in the image, shown below, contains scientists taking water samples for environmental DNA analysis.

Finally, photographer Shayanta Chowdhury captures an entomologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana observing a yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) under a microscope, below. 精东传媒s are studying how the drug nitisinone can be used to kill blood-feeding insects, and the mosquito has been fed a sugar mixture spiked with both the drug and a fluorescent dye.

Birds today have dinosaur DNA. They have dinosaur blood in their veins. Birds evolved directly from Velociraptor-type animals and are the only true dinosaurs that still exist. Steve Brusatte is a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and has been studying 150 million years’ worth of bird evolution, from surviving the asteroid that wiped out their contemporaries to today鈥檚 adaptation into almost every niche. Brusatte introduces elephant birds, terror birds, demon ducks and penguins the size of gorillas, and why “when gulls dive bomb you and try to steal your pasty or your chips鈥�, says Brusatte, “you really can sense in the nastiness, the cunning, the agility, the feistiness. You can sense that inner Velociraptor.鈥�

Read more: The evolving science of dinosaurs