Piping plover and its chick on Jones Beach Island, New York
© Vicki Jauron/Getty Image
Hooray for mom!. 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 mom and dad were sitting on the unhatched eggs, if a predator, such as a fox, raccoon, or house cat were to get too close, they’d fake an injured wing and limp away from the nest to distract the animal. That’s some extra-mile parenting! Who knows if that little chick will remember to call mom this time next year…
Related Images
Hoary marmot in Denali National Park, Alaska
Grey crowned cranes forming a heart
Sandhill cranes taking flight over the Platte River near Kearney, Nebraska
Eurasian lynx in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands of the Czech Republic
Gray wolf with flock of ravens in Finland
Japanese crane in Hokkaido, Japan
La Digue, an island in the Seychelles
Snowy owl
Bing Today Images
Atlantic puffins, Wales
May 12, 2026
An iris garden in Tokyo, Japan
May 12, 2025
Wild lupines in bloom
May 12, 2023
Vernal Fall at Yosemite National Park, California
May 12, 2017
Lavender blooming in northern Thailand
May 12, 2016
