Zuckerman isn't trying to show birds in their natural habitat. Instead, with pure white light and high-tech photo equipment that can capture a sliver of time as brief as a 1/8000th of a second, he isolates his subjects' essences. The images give us a chance to see birds, whether common or rare, as never before.

The domestic pigeon, derived from the rock pigeon, is the world's oldest domesticated bird. Pigeons have been bred to serve as messengers across war zones and also as prize-winning specimens of spectacular and oddball plumage. This newly hatched chick (technically called a squab) will take about a month to grow its adult feathers.