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
No but it is already zoomed in. Imagine there’s a high res, wall size aerial print hanging on the wall of a village or something. So high res that you can see leaves and mice on the ground. Now, if you stand 30ft away from the wall you won’t be able to see the details, just like in real life. But if you step up to the photo, you can focus in on the details like leaves or a blade of grass.
Thats kind of how the eagle’s eye works. He has the high res photo and it’s available to him as if he’s an inch away, able to closely scrutinize whatever detail he wants. Whereas you’re basically standing 30ft away. It’s the same photo with the same details, you just can’t resolve the small details with the eyes you have.
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