Some cicadas must lose the game of sums

The cicadas outnumber the Rainbow Bee-eaters by hundreds to one at the Townsville Common these days. But long odds don't count for much when an insect's number is up.

Elsewhere, a different numbers game. Water fast vanishing from underneath wetland birds. Above, a tiny selection of hundreds of egrets, spoonbills and ibises on one of freshwater reedbeds lowest points. Many of the Great Egrets bearing breeding colouring, mostly with blackening bills.