Killdeer are interesting birds. Some of the wildlife rehabbers I work with have stated that baby killdeer are the only “cute” baby birds – they are born looking like tiny, fluffy, miniature versions of adults, instead of bizarre, bald, alien, helpless, tiny dinosaurs like most baby birds. I suspect they are born more developed because their parents choose such ridiculously terrible nesting spots. This one was about a foot from a trail. The parents took turns guarding it.
Our hike leader took advantage of a “changing of the guards” between the parents to check out the eggs. We only stayed a few seconds to minimize parental distress. But seriously, killdeer, what do you expect??
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