“I’m a botanist and wildlife expert working as a research coordinator in the Gashaka-Gumti National Park in eastern Nigeria. Unfortunately, the park has suffered from decades of illegal logging, poaching, uncontrolled grazing and bush clearing. But since 2017, the charity I work for, called Africa Nature Investors Foundation and based in Lagos, has been restoring the park as a haven for wildlife and indigenous plants, in partnership with Nigeria’s National Park Service.

This photo was taken in March, at the end of Nigeria’s dry season. I was riding my motorcycle down a track in the heart of the forest, 15 minutes from our base camp. I saw a striped kingfisher (Halcyon chelicuti) in the afternoon light, and wanted to take a picture of the bird.