Ordinary Beauty

Hooded crows rarely make it onto postcards. They're too common, too familiar. We see them so often — in cities, on sidewalks, on rooftops — that we almost stop noticing them. That's a little unfair, considering they're among the most intelligent birds in the world, capable of recognizing human faces, solving problems, and adapting to almost any environment.

But then you come across one on a hillside covered in wildflowers, and the familiar image quietly falls apart. It isn't gloomy or ominous at all. It's simply a beautiful bird, sharing the same summer light, the same breeze, and the same landscape as everything else around it.

Maybe the ordinary isn't ordinary after all. Maybe we only mistake it for ordinary because we see it every day.

Southern Urals, Russia.
June, 2020.
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