Do you believe there’s such a thing as an ugly baby? Today, I was with someone who chose another elevator because there was a baby on the first one & she “doesn’t like babies.” Waaa? I am just the opposite–I love ’em! Big, little, fat, scrawny, long, short, quiet or loud… If I could get paid to hold, cuddle and play with babies all day, I’d gladly make a career change.
Well, I kinda feel the same about baby birds. They start out quite funny looking with their translucent skin & closed eyes. Then they start growing downy feathers, but are still prehistoric in appearance. Finally, their real feathers grow in, but still may be awhile before some birds take on their adult appearance.
If the fledgling is female, it’s coloring will stay similar to what it is in the top photo. But if it’s a male, he will look like the photo above, with black feathers and striking red/yellow bars on his wings.
I keep trying to learn better camera techniques to capture nature’s beauty. It is a fun challenge for me to be creative in this way. But no photo can really capture the full depth of beauty around us, can it? What a photo can do is inspire the viewer to look differently at something, more closely than they would or could otherwise. What may look like an ugly baby could also be seen as a unique being, the apple of someone’s eye, or a masterpiece in progress. Every life is beautiful.
35Sparrows For All Things Birding & Nature 