Photo of the Day 163

Waterfowl, Zambezi River, 1997

Photograph by Chris Johns

Silhouetted by salmon skies at sunset, a pair of waterfowl alights on a tree limb near the Zambezi River. Often called the lifeline of southern Africa, the Zambezi cuts a 2,200-mile (3,540-kilometer) course east from Zambia to the Indian Ocean, sustaining elephants, hippos, crocodiles, hundreds of species of birds—and tens of millions of people—along the way.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Down the Zambezi," October 1997, National Geographic magazine)