![]() ![]() Some owls can see even better than humans in the daylight as well, despite the lack of eyeballs.Īt least you never have to worry about an owl giving you the side-eye. At the center of the iris is the dark, round pupil. A thin tissue, called the iris, covers the front of the eye and gives the eyeball its color. Owl species that live in North America have bright yellow or brown eyes. While some believe all of this means that owls can’t see during the day because they’re blinded by too much light, that’s simply not true. The magnificent eyes of owls come in three colors. So, it turns out an owl’s eyes are pretty perfectly suited to its lifestyle. ![]() Binocular visionīinocular vision also lets owls see objects in three dimensions (height, width, and depth). Without moving their heads, their visual field is about 110 degrees (a human’s is 180 degrees, for comparison). That’s so any light can be collected more efficiently, allowing them to see in the dark.Īs it turns out, these elongated eye tubes make it even easier for them to see the way they need to, even if they do have to make more movement in order to get a larger field of vision (also called binocular vision). The benefit of eye rodsĪs you may have noticed, nocturnal animals tend to have large corneas. Well, perhaps, but the benefit of having eyes shaped like rods instead of balls is that not only does it allow them to see better in the dark but it’s the optimal shape for an animal with such a small skull. Most birds of prey have eyes on the sides of their heads, but the stereoscopic nature of the owls forward-facing eyes permits the greater sense of depth. How do owls see without eyeballs?Īccording to the Office of Science & Society at McGill University: “Since moving their torsos would likely make noise that would alert their prey to their presence, owls have evolved to have necks that can spin up to 270° essentially silently.”īut why would an owl evolve to have eye rods instead of eyeballs? Wouldn’t it just be easier not to have to move your head at all in order to see to the side? That’s why they have to move their heads around too much to look around. The eyes of 15 species of owls were examined by retinoscopy, static photorefraction, dynamic photorefraction and keratometry. Because of this shape, owls can’t roll their eyes around while keeping their heads still. However, recent research has shown that owls do have small eye movements less than 1.5 degrees in awake, unanesthetized owls, occurring both. For this reason, an owl cannot roll or move its eyes that is, it can only look straight ahead. Instead, owls have eyes shaped like cylinders (with three eyelids!). Owls have eye tubes or cylinders, rod-shaped eyes that do not move in their sockets as eyeballs do. ![]()
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