Sparrowfeeding (again!)

I can’t imagine the day when these little scenes will fail to delight. Eat up, little one!

I know I’ve been rather down on pigeons, lately, even going so far as to speak of putting them in pies. And my portraits of them tend towards the unflattering. But, here, check out the way the light’s coming through this one’s orange eyeballs, casting colourful patches of light across that crinkly eyeskin! (I think that’s about as charming as it’s going to get, for a pigeon. Sorry!)

Little birds have an awfully rough go of it, in the early weeks of their lives. The instant they leave the nest — and even before — they’re ready prey for, well, just about anything with a mouth.
But the very beginning, those first few days, pillowed below by the nest, and above by the mother bird’s feathers, must be terribly comfortable.
These feathers belong to a male gull, but don’t they look cushy?