New Zealand Banded Dotterel

In a tense moment of instinctual defence, this delicate baby New Zealand Banded Dotterel chick halts motionless at its parent's warning, underscoring raw fragility against lurking predators amid braided riverbeds, sparse gravel, and open skies – an evocative scene stirring empathy for nature's tender struggles in Aotearoa's habitats, captured through distant non-intrusive quiet patience and sensitive timing to preserve the unspoiled, vulnerable instant.