The newly hatched Sooty Chick looks out at the world.

Title: The newly hatched sooty hen chick looks out at the world for the first time.
 In the middle of the reeds, on a nest of water plants and brown straw, a miracle happens in silence: a newborn sooty chick raises its head for the very first time and lets its gaze meet the world. It lies close to its mother's warm body, half hidden, half protected, with shaggy down and a slender beak that still bears the mark of its very first breath of life. The mother sits calmly, almost majestically, with her characteristic red beak turned carefully away – not out of indifference, but out of trust. She knows instinctively that she is guarding more than a life; she is guarding the future. Everything in this image oozes primal power and caution. The soft transition between dark plumage, green reeds and raw nature creates a scene where everything is about tenderness and survival. The little chick – fragile but strong-willed – takes its first look out into a world that is both violent and beautiful, and it happens in a single, silent movement under its mother's feathers.