Water Babies
For 40 years, photographer William Burt has chased after the birds few people see.
- Time of Year
- September 14, 2024 – January 5, 2025
- Location
- Level 1
The “babies” are the downy young of ducks, grebes, gallinules and shorebirds, herons, and the other birds of wetlands – those that get their feet wet, as it were – and challenging they are, to birder and photographer alike: quick-footed, wary, and well-camouflaged, to say the least; and temporary. You have only a week or two each year in which to find them. But above all else, they are endearing. From the comic-monster herons to the fuzzy ducklings and stick-legged sandpipers, these tots have personality – and spunk.
To find these youngsters and adults, Burt prowled their wetland breeding grounds each spring and summer for some seven years, all over North America, from the arctic circle to the Gulf of Mexico. The result: a portrait of these wild birds of the wetlands as not seen before.
Access to this exhibit is included with Museum admission.
© William Burt. Young Piping Plover 2. Old Lyme, CT.
© William Burt. Eared Grebes & Young. Sidewood, SK.
About William Burt
William Burt is a naturalist, photographer, and writer with a passion for wild places – especially marshes - and the elusive birds few people see. His photographs and stories are seen in Smithsonian, Audubon, National Wildlife, and other magazines, and he is the author of four books: Shadowbirds (1994); Rare & Elusive Birds of North America (2001); Marshes: The Disappearing Edens (2007); and Water Babies (2015). He lectures often, and his traveling exhibitions have shown at some 35 museums across the U.S. and Canada - including The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The New Brunswick Museum, The Calgary Science Center, The Liberty Science Center, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
A Closer Look
Explore more of the featured pieces below.
© William Burt. Gadwall, Young 1. Towner County, ND.
© William Burt. Tricolored Heron, Juvenile. St. Johns County, FL.
© William Burt. Black Terns, Young. Towner County, ND.
WATER BABIES
WILLIAM BURT
Photographer / Author: Elusive Birds • Wetlands & Wild Places
https://williamburt.com/