Daddy's Girl: Bird Painting by kto ART

Daddy's Girl: Empire Penguin Male Keeping His Baby Chick Warm 5x7

Happy Father's Day to all those Pops out there!

One extraordinary father in the bird world is the Empire Penguin. He spends just as much time or more than the mother incubating the single egg and parenting the baby chicks once they hatch. I have always loved how silly they look. These big awkward looking bowling pin bodies somehow implement all the tenderness and delicate care necessary to warm fragile eggs (and later fluffballs) during extreme cold and harsh arctic winds.

When the father is warming his little chick, it reminds me of learning to dance on my dad's feet. You see that precious phenomenon at weddings mostly, and it always gets me thinking of the amazing wonder that is the Daddy.

He is the bread-winner, the quiet authority, the carpenter, the garbage disposal, the surprise attack shark in the pool and the human pillow. And no matter how tough his exterior, the Daddy is a big squishy softy when it comes to his babies... Especially if you are lucky enough to be Daddy's Little Girl.