I’ve always wondered whether eagles (and hawks, falcons, really any bird of prey that relies on their vision to hunt) can “zoom in” with their eyes just like it’s a camera lens. Because whenever I watch a nature documentary about eagles, the camera technique they show is that of a camera zoom, zooming in towards the prey hundreds of meters away.
I know that with human eyes, we can’t optically zoom in with our eyes. Sure, our eyes can focus on stuff really close to us, making the background blurry, but it’s not like we can “zoom in” to stuff far in the distance.
So to reiterate, can eagles zoom in to view objects in the distance like their eyes are a camera lens or binoculars with zoom?
In: Biology
Sort of, but they are not selecting either wide view or zoomed inn view. They see both at the same time. You have sort of the same. You see things in the corner of your eye very blurry. As things get closer to the center of your view then you can see it better and better. But at some point you do not see it any better then when you are looking right at it. Eagles have a very similar view as humans. But in addition to being able to see things as humans see things they can see things even more clear the closer it is to the center of their view. Essentially continuing the improvement in eyesight. But there is no switching back and forth between two zoom levels.
The best way you might experience this is if you see through a telescope, like you find in binoculars, rifle scopes, or a camera. But instead of keeping your off-eye closed you open this as well. It takes some practice to get used to this but you will be able to get both a wide area view with your one eye as well as a highly detailed view in the center of your viewfinder. With only a bit of practice your brain is able to combine these views into one complete picture. This is how Eagles are able to see, but in both eyes all the time.
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