A falling leaf on New York State’s Route 91.
Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

The rugged landscape at Yumai town, China’s smallest town in terms of population, at the southern foot of the Himalayas in Tibet.
Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images

An extremely rare red-necked (Jaco) parrot, found only on Dominica, scavenges for food in a rainforest hit by Hurricane Maria. Since Maria, sightings of the bird, which features on the country’s flag, have been scarce.
Photograph: Tomás Ayuso/IRIN

Geoffrey’’s rousette fruit bat”s inside Monfort cave on Samal Island in the Philippines. The Monfort bat’s hold’ the Guinness Record in 2006 as the largest population of this bat species at approximately 1.8 million but their population is estimated to have grown to more than 2.5 million this year.
Photograph: Gregorio B. Dantes Jr/Pacific Press / Barcroft Images

A murmuration of starlings come home to roost as the sun sets in Marazion, Cornwall, UK.
Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Migrating cranes form a ‘W’ as they cross the grey sky over Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Photograph: Frank Rumpenhorst/AFP/Getty Images

Villagers offer flowers to a wild tusker, laying dead in a field in Panbari village on the outskirts of Gauhati, India. According to a veterinarian the tusker died of food poisoning.
Photograph: Anupam Nath/AP