Bing wallpaper for mobile

Hottest Latest
Monarch butterflies migrate south
Monarch butterflies migrate south
Fall sets in motion a journey of some 3,000 miles for these monarch butterflies, which migrate from southern Canada to their wintering habitat in central Mexico. There, they cluster together in fir trees, creating the illusion of orange, fluttering foliage. They’ll remain in their winter roosts until March, when the journey back north begins. But no one individual monarch will complete the full roundtrip, which exceeds the normal monarch lifespan; instead it will take four generations of monarchs to complete the full migration, each individual seemingly driven by an internal compass that guides its flight path.Desktop Version
An improbable tribute for Towel Day
An improbable tribute for Towel Day
"Space," Douglas Adams observed in his comic sci-fi novel "The Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy," "is big. Really big. You just won"t believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you might think it"s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that"s just peanuts to space." So, in his fictional universe, Adams invented the Infinite Improbability Drive as a way to cross its vast distances in a nothingth of a second. And, in one memorable passage, to convert two approaching nuclear missiles into a bowl of petunias and a sperm whale. Thus, today"s image of the Earth"s largest toothed whale is our tribute to Adams on the 20th annual celebration of Towel Day (it"s surprisingly difficult to find a really great image of a bowl of petunias).Desktop Version
Bright and colorful peacock feathers
Bright and colorful peacock feathers
Peacock feathers, multicolored and radiant, are instantly recognizable. Their signature "eyespots" flash in the light when a male displays its tail plumage for a nearby female, known as a "peahen."Desktop Version
Grab onto the handlebars, kid
Grab onto the handlebars, kid
How does a bearded tamarin celebrate Father"s Day? Maybe by giving piggyback rides to pint-sized monkeys. From day one, both male and female bearded emperor tamarin babies (like the one hitching a ride in this photo), start growing their trademark handlebar mustaches and wispy beards. These diminutive residents of the Amazon basin are highly social animals. Females often give birth to twins and stay pretty busy during the day nursing them. After the babies are fed, the males watch over the youngsters by carrying them around on their backs. By the time the young tamarins reach two months old their pops become the primary caregivers, providing food and showing the ropes of the rainforest to their young charges—where to find fruit and nectar in the dry season, how to leap from branch to branch, and the best ways to groom those outrageous mustaches and beards.Desktop Version
Taiwan yuhinas in Alishan National Scenic Area
Taiwan yuhinas in Alishan National Scenic Area
The Taiwan yuhina is a chirpy little bird with an eye-catching crest. Found only on the island of Taiwan, they constantly chatter while feeding and sometimes hang upside-down on cherry trees like bats. Birdwatchers can glimpse the small songbirds at Taiwan’s Alishan National Scenic Area, which features postcard-worthy forest trails and picturesque sunrises.Desktop Version
In honor of those we ve lost
In honor of those we ve lost
Today we"re featuring the view from the Empty Sky memorial in Jersey City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River, to where the World Trade Center"s Twin Towers once stood in New York City"s lower Manhattan. The Empty Sky memorial honors the 749 people from New Jersey who were killed on September 11, 2001. Their names are etched on two massive steel walls that form a tunnel directing the visitor"s gaze to one of the sites of the deadliest terrorist attack in history. The name Empty Sky comes directly from a song by New Jersey"s favorite son, Bruce Springsteen, about the "empty sky" where the Twin Towers once stood before they were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.Desktop Version
Under Parisian skies
Under Parisian skies
For Bastille Day, aka French National Day, we examine not the titular prison that was the site of the beginning of the French Revolution, but another building inexorably wrapped up in that powder-keg moment of French history. The dome in the upper right portion of this photo belongs to the Panthéon. Construction of the building—intended to be a church—began in 1758. But by the time it was completed in 1790, the French Revolution was in full swing and the new establishment decided that it should instead be used as a mausoleum for distinguished French citizens, which it remains today.Desktop Version
A Portuguese fort takes a star turn
A Portuguese fort takes a star turn
Perched on a strategic hillside, high above the hot, dry plains of eastern Portugal, the Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort has been called a masterpiece of 18th-century military architecture. The thick walls that surround the fortress are shaped in a star pattern, with pentagonal bastions jutting out from the curtain wall at the corners. We"re looking at one of those bastions coming to a point in the lower center of our image.Desktop Version
Hut, hut, hike!
Hut, hut, hike!
Meerkats, also called suricates, are highly social animals that enjoy playing together and grooming each other. Members of the mongoose family, they live in mobs (yes, that"s what a group of meerkats is called) of 20 to 50 individuals that work together and share underground burrows to stay cool in the African heat.Desktop Version
Happy anniversary to the National Park Service!
Happy anniversary to the National Park Service!
On the National Park Service"s Founders Day, we"re here on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona peering out at the stunning vista. Can you see the rectangular hole in the canyon wall near the top of the image? That"s Angels Window. Brave hikers can make their way up to the trail above it, but the window itself is best viewed from various points along the North Rim. Far down below is the Colorado River. Beginning about 6 million years ago, it gradually carved downward through countless layers of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock. The Colorado and its tributary streams continue to deepen and widen the Grand Canyon even today.Desktop Version
Kawachi Fuji Garden
Kawachi Fuji Garden
Today we"re taking a trip to a Japanese purple paradise. This photo captures just one of over 22 different varieties of wisteria planted at the Kawachi Fuji Garden in Kitakyushu, Japan. Hundreds of wisteria plants were meticulously cultivated to form tunnels that bloom with shades of blue, white, purple, and pink. The walkable tunnels open into large domes of wisteria vines for visitors to sit under and bask in the fragrant flowers. An overlook gives visitors an impressive view of not only the flowers but also the surrounding valley and its bamboo groves.Desktop Version
Mont-Saint-Michel
Mont-Saint-Michel
Rising majestically out of the bay, Mont-Saint-Michel is once again a true island, at least during high tides. A crude, elevated causeway built in the 19th century once connected Mont-Saint-Michel to the mainland, allowing visitors to walk across to the spectacular rock. But in 2014, the causeway was removed and replaced by an elegant, curving bridge above the tidal flats. Now water flows freely around the monument at high tide, making the tiny island fortress a real island for the first time in more than a century.Desktop Version
Birds of the Drömling
Birds of the Drömling
Common cranes (aka Eurasian cranes) often gravitate to wet open fields, bogs, and marshes. This flock is congregating in the Drömling wetland in Germany. The most widely distributed of all the 15 species of cranes, its native range covers a wide swath of Europe and Asia, with the largest breeding populations in Russia and Scandinavia. As winter approaches, common cranes make the long journey south, often in large flocks of about 400 birds, to North Africa or parts of southern Europe and Asia in search of more civilized temperatures.Desktop Version
Happy 800th, Salisbury Cathedral
Happy 800th, Salisbury Cathedral
We"re in the English county of Wiltshire to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Salisbury Cathedral—the towering marvel of Early English Gothic design rising behind these contentedly grazing sheep. The massive church"s first foundation stones were laid here in Salisbury—then called New Sarum—on April 28, 1220. The structure itself dates back even further, the bulk of it having been moved over a mile piece by piece from the former Roman stronghold of Old Sarum.Desktop Version
Native American Heritage Month
Native American Heritage Month
Here in the Volcanic Tablelands near Bishop, California, is Sky Rock, a set of ancient petroglyphs that face the heavens. The volcanic rock formations of this area have made it a premier rock-climbing destination. But long before sport climbers flocked here, it was (and still is) home to the Paiute-Shoshone peoples, who are thought to have created these petroglyphs and many others throughout the tablelands.Desktop Version
Mount Logan in Yukon, Canada
Mount Logan in Yukon, Canada
Today we"re visiting Canada"s tallest mountain, the 19,551-foot-high Mount Logan, which is part of the St. Elias Mountain range. Located in Yukon, the smallest and westernmost of Canada"s three territories, this majestic peak is also the second tallest in North America—only Alaska"s Denali is taller.Desktop Version
Merry and bright
Merry and bright
Germans began decorating Christmas trees with candles as far back as the 1700s, but people wouldn"t begin stringing trees with electric lights until the late 1800s. Thomas Edison created the first practical incandescent lights and used them to decorate his Menlo Park laboratory for Christmas in 1880. Then three years later, the vice president of Edison"s company, Edward H. Johnson, had Christmas tree bulbs especially made, which he used to decorate the tree in his New York City home. Nevertheless, electric lights didn’t catch on as a holiday decoration among the general public until 1895, when President Grover Cleveland asked that the White House Christmas tree be illuminated by hundreds of multicolored electric bulbs.Desktop Version
A red knot on the Shetland Islands, Scotland
A red knot on the Shetland Islands, Scotland
This little bird with its 20-inch wingspan weighs about as much as a stick of butter, but it has the stamina of an Olympian. Each fall, red knots are known to fly more than 9,000 miles from the Arctic to South America–and in the spring, they do the journey in reverse, for a roundtrip of more than 20,000 miles. The most famous red knot, known as ‘Moonbird,’ is so named because the total of its known migrations have exceeded the distance to the moon. Moonbird was first banded in Rio Grande, Argentina, in 1995 and has been sighted many times in the years after–amazing scientists and birders alike.Desktop Version
Punakaiki on South Island, New Zealand
Punakaiki on South Island, New Zealand
This portion of New Zealand"s South Island coast features plenty of strange geology. The Pancake Rocks, so named due to the stacked, flat layers of sediment and stone, were once underwater. As the Tasman Sea receded, the unusual rocks became the Punakaiki region"s shore. Erosion created openings along the cliffs called "blowholes." When the tide comes crashing in, water sprays up through the openings, and if you"re standing too close, you"ll get soaked.Desktop Version
Cheese! We ll go somewhere where there s cheese!
Cheese! We ll go somewhere where there s cheese!
Ahh, the pastoral countryside of the Yorkshire Dales in Northern England. Dewy mornings, grazing farm animals, hand-built dry stone walls, and…cheese? Well, if you"re a fan of the beloved British claymation series "Wallace & Gromit," you may have first heard of this area of the Dales, Wensleydale, because of its local cheese. In fact, the animated duo"s notorious affinity for the local curd—which Wallace likes because producers thought saying it makes his face look "nice and toothy"—became so widespread that it helped the Wensleydale cheesemakers stave off bankruptcy.Desktop Version
From Sputnik to extraterrestrial storms
From Sputnik to extraterrestrial storms
NASA’s solar-powered Juno probe took this photo of a massive storm near Jupiter’s north pole. Juno’s been collecting data and taking incredible photos of Jupiter since 2016, showing us detailed evidence of the turbulent atmosphere surrounding the largest planet in our solar system.Desktop Version
A city of bridges
A city of bridges
We"re in the heart of Switzerland looking down on the compact city of Lucerne, in a charming waterfront setting along the shores of its namesake lake and the River Reuss. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains just out of frame, Lucerne lies in the German-speaking part of central Switzerland and is divided into two parts linked by a series of bridges. The most famous of these bridges—the centerpiece and symbol of Lucerne—is the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), a covered wooden footbridge that you can see spanning diagonally across the Reuss in our photo. The building rising from the river alongside the footbridge is a medieval water tower, which has been used as a prison, torture chamber, local archive, and treasury.Desktop Version
Wild turkeys in repose
Wild turkeys in repose
The only difference between the wild turkeys in our photo today and the domestic turkeys many of us are preparing for the Thanksgiving meal is that domestic turkeys are raised on farms. Scientifically speaking, they’re the same species. The wild turkeys—like these two in Winter, Wisconsin—demonstrate how incredible these birds are in their natural environment. Adult turkeys have some 5,000 to 6,000 feathers, which work kind of like cat whiskers, helping the birds sense their environment. It’s the tom turkeys who have these large tail feather displays—they use them to attract hens. Wild turkeys don"t fly far and don"t migrate, but they are agile and can cover short distances quickly. They’re also highly adaptable to new environments, ranging throughout Mexico (where they originated) and the contiguous United States, and into several Canadian provinces as well.Desktop Version
Celebrating Flag Day
Celebrating Flag Day
June 14 is Flag Day, which commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States in 1777. Our nation"s first official flag had 13 stars and 13 red and white stripes to represent the original 13 colonies that broke from British rule. The stars were arranged on a blue background to represent a "new constellation." In 1795, two more stars and two stripes were added to reflect the entry of Vermont and Kentucky to the Union. Then in 1818, Congress passed a plan to go back to 13 stripes and add only stars for new states. The current version of the flag has been in effect since 1960, after Hawaii became a state the prior year. The flags we"re looking at here are flying in New Jersey"s Liberty State Park, with the Statue of Liberty in the background.Desktop Version
An underwater rainbow
An underwater rainbow
You might look twice if you passed by this Technicolor sea creature gliding through the ocean water. In celebration of World Octopus Day, we"re marveling at a photograph of the rarely seen blanket octopus, near Palm Beach, Florida. The blanket octopus gets its common name from the sheets of webbing that stretch between some arms of the female, like the one pictured here. When threatened, it spreads out its arms, creating a blanketlike silhouette to intimidate would-be attackers.Desktop Version