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 they can’t, but they have acute vision that is 4 to 8 times better than humans and allows them to see over much greater distances.
They also have a higher density of photoreceptors which allows them to see greater detail.
Their field of view is massive too and they can very quickly adjust focus to track moving prey.
Latest Answers