The stories of a unique bond between a child and their pet are as timeless as they come, but rarely does the pet have wings. Such is the case with photographer Cameron Bloom whose son Noah happened upon a baby magpie in 2013 when the family was out walking near their home in Newport, Australia. After consulting with a veterinarian, the family learned to raise the orphaned bird, who they affectionately named Penguin.

Two styles of cleaned bird's nest, Yan Zhan (L) and Su Zhan (R) await repacking at a processing plant in Kuala Lumpur, February 17, 2015. Prized in China for is alleged health benefits for hundreds of years, nests made from swiftlets' saliva are being mixed into coffee and cereal as the Southeast Asian producers of the delicacy seek to broaden its appeal, and their profit margins. The nests are among the world's most expensive foods, selling for up to $2,500 a kg and the swiftlets that weave them are indigenous to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)

The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

A pigeon stretches its wings in the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul on July 16, 2022. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP Photo)

Brazen seagulls, pigeons and starlings bask in the afternoon sun undeterred by a plastic Owl bird scarer on the roof of Liverpool Coastguard Station at Crosby on January 13, 2012 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

This is the hilarious moment a terrified baby hippo ran screaming for its mum when a flock of bird landed on its back in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. The hippo was seen screaming, running and twisting from side to side in a desperate bid to shake off the red and yellow ox-pecker birds. Ox-peckers and hippos usually have a mutually beneficial relationship where the birds help free hippos of ticks and other parasites by feeding on them. (Photo by Marc Mol/Caters News/SIPA Press)

A bird is cleaned at the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, California January 20, 2015. A gooey, unknown material discovered on the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay is clinging to the feathers of birds, and more than 100 birds, mostly species of oceangoing, diving ducks, have died after their feathers were fouled by the viscous substance now undergoing testing at state labs in Sacramento. (Photo by Robert Galbraith/Reuters)

Sharon Beals is a San Francisco based photographer who has photographed nest and eggs specimens collected over the last two centuries at The California Academy of Sciences, The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. While few nests are collected today, these nests and eggs are used for research, providing important information about their builder’s habitats, DNA, diseases and other survival issues.