Alex Wang, The Cost of a Meal (ANIMAL & NATURE 2026)

To a hungry chick, a fish is simply a meal. What is often unseen is the effort required to provide it. These images follow a white-fronted tern through a single cycle of parental care: searching, diving, capturing prey, transporting it back to the colony, and finally feeding its young. Each successful delivery represents a series of precise decisions and repeated attempts over the open ocean. Together, the photographs reveal the hidden work behind a moment that lasts only seconds, but is repeated countless times throughout the breeding season. For the next generation, survival depends on every one of these journeys.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.