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
Donkeys in a valley near Rhyolite, Nevada
Striated heron on a Victoria water lily, Pantanal, Brazil
Impala with red-billed oxpecker in Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana
Magellanic penguins, Volunteer Point, Falkland Islands
Andean cocks-of-the-rock, Ecuador
Atlantic spotted dolphins near Santa Maria Island, Azores, Portugal
Red fox cubs near their den
North American beaver, Moran, Wyoming
Today on Bing
Wild lupines in bloom
May 12, 2023
