This Mother’s Day we celebrate some special parenting skills from six remarkable species.
Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate everything our mums do for us, and there are species all around us with special parenting skills up their sleeves. We look at five birds and one spider with a fun view to what we can learn from the animal world.
Eider Ducks are true seaducks, rarely found away from the coast. These birds take all responsibility for raising the chicks, including feathering their nest with down plucked from their own breasts. It’s the same down that gives eiderdown it’s famed reputation for warmth – perfect for incubating eggs. The mother duck sits on the nest for up to 26 days, never leaving and living off their fat reserves until all the eggs have hatched.
Eiders are found on the coasts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of the north of England, although they do venture further south during the winter months.
Mallard mums also take full responsibility for hatching the chicks. Once the eggs have been laid, the male ducks depart to form bachelor groups, leaving the females to sit on the eggs for up to 28 days.
The mother ducks’ responsibility can intensify once the chicks have hatched, as they need to safely guide their brood to the nearest body of water. This could involve negotiating the dangers of busy roads and predators along the way. Once safely settled and while the chicks’ flight feathers are still developing, the mothers teach their little ones how to seek out shelter and food.
Mallards are probably the UK’s best-known duck and are found pretty much anywhere where there is fresh water.
Ospreys are birds of prey that that migrate to the UK around March to nest and raise their chicks. They tend to mate for life, and the father certainly pulls his weight by helping to build the nest and catching food. The mother, however, does most of the incubating of the eggs and direct feeding of the chicks. Osprey mums are also fiercely protective of their brood, and not shy to use their sharp talons or their size against those who stray too close to their nest. Female Ospreys are often 20% larger than the males – a match for any unwanted visitor!
Hunting pushed these birds to extinction in the UK, but in the 1950s a single pair nested in Loch Garten in Scotland. Determined to keep the birds safe, the RSPB set up a 24-hour protection watch. Although the first breeding attempt failed, the birds returned and nested successfully in subsequent years. Thanks to these efforts and a number of reintroductions, there are now hundreds of Ospreys breeding in the UK, although Scotland remains their stronghold.
Nightjars migrate to the UK from late April to breed and raise their chicks on heathlands, moorlands, woodland clearings and in recently felled conifer plantations. They are well camouflaged, with their mottled brown and black markings making them look uncannily like a block of wood. This camouflage is a big bonus during the nesting season when the parent Nightjars nest on the bare ground, usually amongst dead branches.
The mother does nearly all the heavy lifting here with the father only taking over the incubation or brooding at dawn and dusk. This means defending the young often falls to the mother who will sometimes even fake an injury to lure predators away – extremely brave for a bird that only weighs about 80g, as much as three AA batteries!
Nightjars are most commonly found in southern England, although they also breed in parts of Wales, northern England and southwestern Scotland.
The world’s oldest known wild bird made headlines around the world in 2024 when she laid an egg at the grand old age of 74. Wisdom, the Laysan Albatross, laid her egg on the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge off the coast of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Here, in the largest albatross colony in the world, she tended her egg alongside her partner. The chick hatched on 30 January 2025, with the proud parents taking turns to care for it while the other hunts and feeds to restore energy. Wisdom is thought to have raised over 30 chicks in her lifetime.
There are 22 species of albatross found across the world, with 15 of these threatened with extinction. Accidental bycatch is an unwelcome side effect of commercial fishing in which birds get tangled in nets and lines, and this is a major factor in their decline. The Albatross Task Force, set up by the RSPB and BirdLife International, is working with fishing crews and policy makers to tackle the problem.
For example, through working with fishing crews and policy makers to pass new fishing laws, seabird deaths reduced by an estimated 98% in Namibia's longline fishery, and similarly in South Africa's trawl fishery albatross deaths dropped by an estimated 99%. While there remains much to be done, the Albatross Task Force is making great strides in their conservation. Working together, we can secure a future for these magnificent creatures, helping birds like Wisdom and her descendants to flourish.
One of the UK’s rarest spiders, Fen Raft Spiders have a very tender motherly streak. The female will build an egg sac to keep her babies close and carry it around for about three weeks, dipping it into water every few hours to stop it from drying out. She’ll then build a nursery web for them before they hatch, and the spiderlings will stay there, safely guarded by their mother, for a week until they’re mature enough to fend for themselves.
Back in 2010, the future looked bleak for Fen Raft Spiders, with this wetland arachnid on the brink of extinction. But concerted conservation efforts by the RSPB and other partners have paid off and population numbers on the Norfolk Broads are steadily increasing. RSPB Strumpshaw Fen in Norfolk is a good place to look for them, particularly between June and September.
