Situated in the Pacific Ocean some 620 miles (1,000 km) from the South American continent, these 19 islands and the surrounding marine reserve have been called a unique “living museum and showcase of evolution”. Photo: “Close-up. We had a juvenile Red-Footed Booby come visit us on the sun deck. I got some closeups with my ultrawide 11-16mm Tokina”. (Photo by Carl Fredrickson)

Potoos (family Nyctibiidae) are a group of near passerine birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. They are sometimes called Poor-me-ones, after their haunting calls. There are seven species in one genus, Nyctibius, in tropical Central and South America.
These are nocturnal insectivores which lack the bristles around the mouth found in the true nightjars. They hunt from a perch like a shrike or flycatcher. During the day they perch upright on tree stumps, camouflaged to look like part of the stump. The single spotted egg is laid directly on the top of a stump.

Zulmira Jesus poses for a portrait at a street in Povoa de Agracoes, near Chaves, Portugal April 19, 2016. In the villages of Agracoes and Povoa de Agracoe, the steady drip-drip of emigration has brought down population numbers from more than 50 residents to fewer than a dozen each. These remaining villagers share the same glum acceptance that, after they have gone, their villages will die out too. It is the same desolate picture in scores of other backwater settlements in Portugal's interior, north to south. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

A neighborhood watch volunteer stands guard on her street on February 9, 2017 in Peronia, Guatemala. Residents of Peronia, south of Guatemala City organized block by block to secure their community after ten of their neighbors in January were killed, they say, for refusing to pay extortion money to gangs. Armed with machetes and sticks, residents take turns each night, baring strangers' entry into their neighborhoods. Violence and poverty continue to drive emigration from Central America to the United States, even as the Trump administration moves to tighten border security. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Actor Kurt Tocci leaps for photographers at the premiere of the AMC series “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live”, Wednesday, February 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

San Zhi, Taiwan is an abandoned vacation resort on the northern coast of Taiwan. It was built in the early 1980s, but construction of the futuristic resort ceased after a series of fatal accidents.
Even though it never opened as a vacation resort, San Zhi can still be toured. The strange pod-like buildings act as a tourist attraction. The colors of the pod-like buildings depend on their location. The buildings in the west are green, in the east pink, in the south blue, and in the north white

“A girl arrives at the parking lot wearing tiny leather shorts and sits on the back of a bike with a horse power of more than 1,000 CC. Next to her a man gets ready to ride, wearing a skeleton mask. It’s more than a fashion show, it’s an extravaganza on two wheels along Chinese roads”. – Carlos Barria. Photo: A couple rides their motorcycle at the Qian Dao Lake rally, on May 11, 2013. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director, animator, manga artist, producer, and screenwriter. Through a career that has spanned over fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of anime feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, a film and animation studio. The success of Miyazaki's films has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney, British animator Nick Park and American director Robert Zemeckis.