ナショナルジオグラフィックさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ナショナルジオグラフィックInstagram)「Photo by Karine Aigner @kaigner / Many of the seeds and nuts found in the Amazon rainforest are filled with toxins, so each day animals come to clay licks to neutralize those toxins. After three days of attempts, these cobalt-winged parakeets (Brotogeris cyanoptera) finally made it down from the canopy to the sodium they were jonesing for. It can take hours upon hours for them to descend from the top of the rainforest. The flock sends out “sentries” to check to see if it is safe. One by one the birds descend, but if just ONE of them spooks, the entire flock will disperse and begin the process all over again. When this flock finally spooked, thousands of birds flew directly at me en masse; I could feel their wind on my face and see their dark bodies filling the lens at torpedo speed. When they had finally gone, a man sitting next to me—on vacation in Ecuador with his family—turned to me with wide eyes and a smile and said, “This was a religious experience. Absolutely magical. Just. Absolutely. Magical.” And such is nature: Absolutely. Magical. For more stories on the intersections between nature and man follow me @kaigner! #birds #ecuador #yasuni #nationalpark #parakeet」2月9日 20時38分