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Crested Crane, Zaire, 1995

Backlit by the setting sun, a crested crane forages in the African savanna. Also called grey-crowned cranes, these ostentatiously adorned birds are known for their equally flamboyant courtship dances, which involve, among other flourishes, head-bobbing, jumping, wing-flapping, and stick-tossing.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Return to Rwanda," October 1995, National Geographic magazine)

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Photograph by Michael Nichols