Sarah Marjoribanks, Ascension (ANIMALS 2025)

In this fleeting moment, a young female Carnaby's Black Cockatoo stretches into her flight, each beat of her wings a brave promise of life beyond the canopy. - Over many months on the windswept southern coast of Western Australia I shared dawns and dusks with flocks of endangered Carnaby's Black Cockatoos as they journeyed through their annal coastal migration. I watched parents tenderly coax their fledglings into flight, witnessed tight knit family groups foraging together, and felt the quiet communion of wings against the sky. Each encounter revealed their remarkable bonds, calls of reassurance, gentle preening, and patient teaching of survival skills. Their declining numbers weigh heavily on my heart. Habitat loss and changing landscapes threaten their future. Yet in these moments of wild grace, I found hope... a testament to the resilience of a species that still rises, together on fragile wings.

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