Piping plover and its chick on Jones Beach Island, New York
© Vicki Jauron/Getty Image
Hooray for mum!. The parenting of a piping plover
To celebrate Mother’s Day this year, we’re on Jones Beach Island in New York, where piping plovers are helping their newly hatched chicks prepare to leave the nest - just hours after they hatch. While mum and dad were sitting on the unhatched eggs, if a predator, such as a fox, raccoon, or housecat were to get too close, they’d fake an injured wing and limp away from the nest to draw the animal away. That’s some next-level parenting! Who knows if that little chick will remember to call mum this time next year…
Related Images
Sandhill cranes taking flight over the Platte River near Kearney, Nebraska
Eurasian lynx in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands of the Czech Republic
Japanese crane in Hokkaido, Japan
La Digue, an island in the Seychelles
Hoary marmot in Denali National Park, Alaska
Ground pangolin at Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
A European goldfinch perched among rosehips in snow
Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) lying on a bed of sea grass in Carnac Island, Western Australia
Bing Today Images
Atlantic puffins, Wales
May 12, 2026
An iris garden in Tokyo, Japan
May 12, 2025
Wild lupine in purple and blue
May 12, 2023
River Brathay, Lake District, England
May 12, 2022
