A Sandhill Crane comes in for a landing at the Bosque del Apache bird refuge, in New Mexico, USA. The sun would disappear behind the mountains within the next few minutes, but for now, its fading light was capable of turning to gold the underside of the usually gray crane.

Superb at soaring, and apparently good at surviving, the fossil record indicates these elegant cranes have existed on earth as a species far longer than most living birds.

I was a bit short on firepower with my lens, which could only rack out to 200mm - I've cropped the original image quite a bit - yet I think I may have managed to capture the mood of the literally fleeting moment.