Photo of mother bird feeding chick a cigarette butt used to spotlight litter

A photograph recently captured in Florida that shows a mother bird feeding a chick a cigarette butt on a local beach has been making its way across the country this week.

Largo resident Karen Mason, who says she took the photograph of the black skimmer on June 20, first shared the photo on her Facebook page on Monday.

“If you smoke, please don’t leave your butts behind,” Mason wrote in the caption.

Another photo Mason captured shows just the chick on the beach with the cigarette butt still in its mouth.

“This Skimmer chick was offered a cigarette butt by [its] parent. It’s time we cleaned up our beaches and stopped treating them like one giant ash tray,” she wrote in the post, while adding a #nobuttsforbabies hashtag. 

Since Mason shared the photos on Facebook earlier this week, a number of publications across Florida, and later across the country, have highlighted it. 

{mosads}She’s also gained praise from commenters for spreading awareness about litter.

“Thankful for the awareness wildlife photographers can provide in educating the public and providing visuals for potential legislation changes,” one person wrote. “I hope your image continues to spread.”

“This photo is fantastic and will hopefully shock people into realizing what impact humans are making to this planet. Thank you so much for this photo!” another commenter said.

Mason, who is an avid photographer of nature, told The Hill that the skimmers are her “favorite birds.” In her spare time, Mason said she volunteers at the birds’ nesting sites to “educate people about these wonderful creatures.” 

She also stressed the hard work that the National Audubon Society, a non-profit organization committed to conservation, has done to “protect these birds while they are trying to nest on crowded Florida beaches.”

According to data collected by the NGO Ocean Conservancy last year, cigarette butts have for decades been the most-collected item on beaches around the world.