Mother and father tending to their offspring are a few of the loveliest moments in nature, so it’s no marvel that photographers attempt to seize these interactions. Final 12 months, like another 12 months, the 2025 Audubon Pictures Awards obtained a formidable assortment of child hen pictures that had us awwing at our screens. From adorably awkward American Woodcock fluffballs to shy swallow chicks in Chile, the next 15 pictures are a surprising showcase of avian household life throughout the Americas.
All of those pictures have been captured at a protected and accountable distance, and in doing so, they offer us glimpses into moments of fascinating pure historical past each far and near dwelling. Though the photographs didn’t win any awards, they undoubtedly gained our hearts. Ensure to take a look at the 2025 awards winners, honorable mentions, and Top 100 for extra dazzling shows. However within the meantime, prepare for a bombardment of cuteness.
Nice Horned Owl (above)
Surrounded by spindly Spanish moss, an grownup Nice Horned Owl naps with its owlet. This species is North America’s most widespread owl and one of many first to start out breeding—as early as late November in southern states like Florida, the place Alex Nelson captured this picture. Within the winter, pairs of Nice Horned Owls start to hoot to 1 one other, and the feminine spends greater than a month incubating the eggs. Younger go away the nest round 5 weeks after hatching, and can spend one other 5 weeks screeching and clambering alongside tree branches till they will fly.
American Woodcock
Identical to adults, child American Woodcocks bob to the beat of their very own drum as they stroll throughout the forest flooring. These downy chicks go away their nest inside hours after hatching, and are fed by their mom for the primary week of their life. After that, they forage on their very own, bouncing alongside to fire up prey whereas probing their lengthy little payments into the soil seeking earthworms and bugs. On this picture, Andrew Tao captures a candy second between mom and child, the place she holds a wormy meal she snagged from the leaf litter in her beak.
Wooden Stork
Wooden Storks nest in bustling waterbird colonies at wetlands in Florida and the Southeast. Firstly of the breeding season, these birds use massive sticks to assemble flimsy nests in mangrove timber or cypress, and can delicately line the within with leaves. Inside the nest, storks will lay round three to 4 eggs, with 5, as pictured, being the utmost clutch measurement. Because the season goes on, new sticks could also be added to the nest, and it’ll actually turn into lined in guano, which helps preserve the construction collectively. Younger storks are noisy and scraggly, and can fledge at round eight weeks previous.
Baltimore Oriole
Though a lover of fruits and nectar, in relation to feeding their chicks, grownup Baltimore Orioles largely depend on bugs. Feeding these younger birds beetles, moths, and grasshoppers snagged from the treetops provides them sufficient protein for them to develop. Though the feminine oriole is pictured right here, each mother and father assist elevate the chicks. Younger birds develop up in a hanging pouch-like nest, woven primarily by the feminine, and can go away the nest about two weeks after hatching.
Sandhill Crane
A Sandhill Crane chick is named a colt—an apt identify since these birds are working and on their toes at a really younger age, as photographed right here by Tim Barker. Inside a day after hatching, colts comply with their mother and father into marshy areas, the place each mother and father feed the younger hen bugs, seeds, or different bite-sized meals. Younger cranes stick round their mother and father for9 to 10 months, ultimately migrating with their household to their wintering grounds on the finish of the breeding season.
Crested Caracara
Though they appear like a hawk, caracaras are literally falcons. Actually, they’re the one falcon that collects nesting materials to assemble their cumbersome abodes, relying on sticks, stems, vines, and different vegetation to construct a construction round two toes throughout in measurement. As soon as established, nests may be reused by pairs 12 months after 12 months, with the birds making repairs and including nesting supplies as obligatory. This Crested Caracara household, photographed by Isabel Guerra Clark, appears to have made its dwelling in a saguaro cactus, a keystone plant of the Sonoran Desert.
Chilean Swallow
A standard sight within the extra temperate reaches of Chile and Patagonia, the Chilean Swallow is a species that solely breeds in southern South America. Like many swallows, they nest in cavities close to water, both below the eaves of homes or in tree hollows, reminiscent of one housing the 2 fledglings pictured right here. Contained in the cavity, Chilean Swallow nests are constituted of mud and lined with feathers, the place the feminine will lay a clutch of 4 to 6 eggs. A pair can elevate two to a few broods a season.
American Goldfinch
On the subject of American Goldfinch chicks, the male takes on the majority of the work. He’s in control of gathering meals when the chicks first hatch, whereas the feminine palms over the meals to the chicks. Over time, the male begins to present the chicks meals straight, and when the birds are near fledging, he’s the first caregiver. On this picture, Sarah McDaniel captures the male goldfinch feeding three nestlings in a prairie in Illinois.
American Oystercatcher
Fuzzy oystercatcher chicks are in a position to go away the nest inside hours after they hatch. Within the first two months of their lives, each of the mother and father will carry the younger birds shellfish and worms and can loudly chase and harass predators. As they develop, the chicks will then begin to probe on their very own, foraging alongside the shorelines and utilizing their tan coloration as camouflage in opposition to the sandy seaside. On this picture, Matt Reitinger noticed two chicks enjoying, chasing one different, and stepping into chest-bumping tussles on a seaside in New Jersey.
American Robin
When American Robins first hatch, they’re blind, helpless, and lined in just a few wisps of white downy feathers. However over the course of a brief two weeks, these chicks bear a dramatic transformation. Each mother and father work diligently to collect bundles of bugs and earthworms, nourishing their infants to allow them to sprout new feathers, develop their wings, and strengthen their muscle groups. Once they emerge from the nest, as this younger robin pictured right here has achieved, they’re the identical measurement as an grownup and may tentatively fly and forage on their very own.
Trumpeter Swan
The wetlands of Alaska, the place Hiresha Senanayake snapped this household picture, hosts necessary refuges for the Trumpeter Swan. It’s the place many swans, primarily ones from the Pacific coast, nest and breed, making the most of the luxurious panorama’s considerable meals and security from predators. A swan pair can have as much as 9 cygnets (child swans), which may swim after they’re one-day previous. Household portraits like these was uncommon, as Trumpeter Swans have been thought of endangered within the mid-1900s after they underwent a precipitous decline. However because of looking laws and habitat safety, the species has made a miraculous rebound.
Roseate Spoonbill
A newly hatched Roseate Spoonbill could seem a bit bit like a dinosaur. Its invoice is lengthy, thick, and vaguely spoonlike, and a layer of white downy feathers covers its pale pink pores and skin. Like many child birds, a spoonbills’ weight loss plan consists of regurgitated meals, on this case of small fish and crustaceans that the adults scooped up from close by waters. The chick will stay within the nest for a couple of month, till they climb onto close by foliage and eventually fledge at six weeks previous.
California Quail
A clutch for a California Quail is normally round 13 to 14 eggs, and once they hatch, massive teams of chicks may be seen following the adults round. Through the morning and night, quails spend a lot of their time on the bottom, foraging for seeds and different grains. However when they should relaxation, they roost within the security of timber. For this picture, Robert Groos got here throughout six two-week-old quail chicks getting comfy on a fallen oak department on his property.
Golden-plumed Parakeet
A protracted-tailed parrot discovered excessive within the Andes, the Golden-plumed Parakeet is usually nomadic, wandering the cloud forests in massive, rowdy teams. Nonetheless, as soon as they begin nesting, the parakeets will stick to 1 place for a number of months. These birds are cavity nesters, as seen on this picture taken by Santiago Palacios Salazar in Colombia, and have been famous to have an affinity for hollows in wax palm timber. As soon as the chicks hatch, each female and male parakeets care for his or her younger, feeding them three to 4 occasions a day, and can shrilly name to 1 one other when returning to the nest.
Laysan Albatross
Flying, for a Laysan Albatross chick, is hard enterprise. Earlier than they fledge at round six months previous, these birds can spend weeks vigorously flapping, working into the wind, and training little hops to grasp the raise of their massive wings. As soon as aloft, it might be a very long time earlier than an albatross sees land once more: Younger albatrosses spend their first three or 4 years residing at sea, solely returning to their delivery islands when they’re prepared to boost households of their very own. The birds nest in just some distant islands on this planet, together with on Kauai, Hawaii, which is the place Alex Eisengart took this picture.
