A mother Loon gently offers a small aquatic insect larvae to her two-day-old chick, on a small lake in western Montana. Both parents began with deliveries of small insects, then changed to small fish after two weeks, and eventually delivered crayfish before the youngster learned to feed himself.
A mother Loon hovers near her tiny, two-day-old chick.
A young Loon chick peeks out from under the protective cover of his mother's wing. Behind the lens. Loons are very protetective parents. When the young chicks tire, they climb aboard a parent's back to rest in comfort. And when the parent senses danger - like when a Bald eagle is flying nearby - the parent lifts one wing and the chick crawls underneath. In this way the parent Loon can make the chick completely invisible from above and from below, but the chick eventually gets hungry and peeks out to see if the coast is clear.
