Why National Geographic "Photo of the Day" is so Special ...

A shoal of sardines

Table Mountain and Cape Town, South Africa

In Argentina’s Jujuy Province, the Suris' feathered costumes represent the nandu, or rhea, sacred bird of the Suris.

Port Hedland, Western Australia

Tiger cubs in India’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve

The ice and skies of Greenland

Orphaned elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi National Park, Kenya

The lake at the nature reserve in Sződliget, Hungary

Ants using their bodies to build a bridge to reach food in Mataram, Indonesia

Mount Bromo (in foreground) and Mount Semeru (in background) on a misty morning in East Java, Indonesia

Flamingo at Birmingham Zoo in Alabama, USA

Galah birds in the Strzelecki Desert of Australia

Beach soccer at Praia do Farol da Barra, Brazil

Bears in Kurile Lake, in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula

Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Fourth Stryker Brigade combat Team returning to the USA from Afghanistan

Hummingbird in Costa Rica

Forest park in Lithuania

A member of the Bajau people of Malaysia

Penguins in Antarctica

One of New Zealand's most stunning beaches

Unspecified town in Fenghuang County, China

Women take pictures of themselves in front of the Shanghai skyline

Tumuch Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Surfer at Barangay Urbiztondo beach in San Juan, La Union, Philippines

Dancers at the Lucerna Music Bar in Prague, Czech Republic

Young Galápagos sharks nose the camera in the lagoon of the Bassas da India atoll

Guatemala's Acatenango Volcano

Photographed at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey, USA

Holi at Radha Krishna Temple in Kolkata, India

Umbrellas shade novice monks at a pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar

Forbidden City, Beijing, China

An anemone and its tenant, a pink anemonefish, look out for each other in the waters of Papua New Guinea's Kimbe Bay.

Night view of Sunndalsøra, Norway

Superclimber Alex Honnold dangles from an overhang on Oman's Musandam Peninsula

Wrapped in white to symbolize purity, women arrive for prayer at an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Asaita

Hong Kong after a summer rain shower

A green grasshopper rests aboard a red mushroom boat in a sea of moss.

A rice mill worker rests in Bangladesh.

Ducks gather at dawn in a private tidal pond in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, USA