These Precious Photos of Baby Birds Are Just What You Need

Dad and mom tending to their offspring are among the most adorable moments in nature, so it’s no surprise that photographers attempt to seize these interactions. Final 12 months, like every other 12 months, the 2025 Audubon Images Awards obtained a powerful assortment of child chicken images 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 images have been captured at a secure and accountable distance, and in doing so, they provide us glimpses into moments of fascinating pure historical past each far and near dwelling. Though the pictures didn’t win any awards, they positively received our hearts. Make certain 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.

Do not forget! Entry for the 2026 awards closes on March 4. So enter now! 

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 begin 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 at least one one other, and the feminine spends greater than a month incubating the eggs. Younger depart 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

Similar to adults, child American Woodcocks bob to the beat of their very own drum as they stroll throughout the forest flooring. These downy chicks depart 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 searching for 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. At first of the breeding season, these birds use giant sticks to assemble flimsy nests in mangrove timber or cypress, and can delicately line the within with leaves. Throughout 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 definitely turn into coated in guano, which helps preserve the construction collectively. Younger storks are noisy and scraggly, and can fledge at round eight weeks outdated.
 

Baltimore Oriole

Though a lover of fruits and nectar, with regards to feeding their chicks, grownup Baltimore Orioles principally depend on bugs. Feeding these younger birds beetles, moths, and grasshoppers snagged from the treetops offers them sufficient protein for them to develop. Though the feminine oriole is pictured right here, each dad and mom assist elevate the chicks. Younger birds develop up in a hanging pouch-like nest, woven primarily by the feminine, and can depart the nest about two weeks after hatching.

Sandhill Crane

A Sandhill Crane chick known as a colt—an apt title 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 dad and mom into marshy areas, the place each dad and mom feed the younger chicken bugs, seeds, or different bite-sized meals. Younger cranes stick round their dad and mom for9 to 10 months, finally 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. The truth is, 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 could be reused by pairs 12 months after 12 months, with the birds making repairs and including nesting supplies as mandatory. 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 beneath the eaves of homes or in tree hollows, akin to one housing the 2 fledglings pictured right here. Contained in the cavity, Chilean Swallow nests are comprised 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 3 broods a season.

American Goldfinch

Relating to American Goldfinch chicks, the male takes on the majority of the work. He’s in command of gathering meals when the chicks first hatch, whereas the feminine palms over the meals to the chicks. Over time, the male begins to offer 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 capable of depart the nest inside hours after they hatch. Within the first two months of their lives, each of the dad and mom will convey 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 towards the sandy seaside. On this picture, Matt Reitinger noticed two chicks enjoying, chasing one different, and moving into chest-bumping tussles on a seaside in New Jersey.

American Robin

When American Robins first hatch, they’re blind, helpless, and coated 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 dad and mom work diligently to assemble bundles of bugs and earthworms, nourishing their infants to allow them to sprout new feathers, develop their wings, and strengthen their muscle tissues. Once they emerge from the nest, as this younger robin pictured right here has performed, 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 vital 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 plentiful meals and security from predators. A swan pair can have as much as 9 cygnets (child swans), which might swim after they’re one-day outdated. Household portraits like these was once uncommon, as Trumpeter Swans have been thought of endangered within the mid-1900s after they underwent a precipitous decline. However due to looking rules 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-reduction 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 at last fledge at six weeks outdated.
 

California Quail

A clutch for a California Quail is often round 13 to 14 eggs, and once they hatch, giant teams of chicks could 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 snug 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 often nomadic, wandering the cloud forests in giant, rowdy teams. Nevertheless, as soon as they begin nesting, the parakeets will stick to at least one 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 instances a day, and can shrilly name to at least one 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 outdated, these birds can spend weeks vigorously flapping, working into the wind, and practising little hops to grasp the elevate of their giant wings. As soon as aloft, it could 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.