A couple walks across the Francis Scott Key Bridge as the setting sun lights up the clouds in Washington, Friday, October 30, 2020. (Photo by J. David Ake/AP Photo)

Hot-air balloons fly over Metropolitano park during the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Leon, state of Guanajuato, Mexico on November 19, 2023. (Photo by Henry Romero/Reuters)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A cleaning staff waers protective gear to disinfect a metro carriage as a prevemtive measure against the spreading of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 20, 2020. African countries have been among the last to be hit by the global COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic but as cases rise, many nations are now taking strict measures to block the deadly illness. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/AFP Photo)

Inmates are seen at the transgender gallery in La Joya prison on the outskirts of Panama City, Panama February 3, 2016. Inmates of La Joya prison on the outskirts of Panama City are housed in makeshift cells amid heavy overcrowding, living in grimy conditions and with limited medical attention. Many prisoners in the Central American nation languish for years without being sentenced. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

A visitor wears an outfit as she watches the St. George NextGen show for Fashion Week in Sydney on May 16, 2017. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

Members of the LSU Golden Girls dance team sit spaced apart wearing masks, under COVID-19 restrictions, requiring social distancing and masks, before an NCAA college football game between the LSU and the Mississippi State in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, September 26, 2020. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

Hot air balloons in flight over Melbourne, Australia on January 24, 2022. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)