When we, humans, view the world, we see it in different colors. And we used to think that birds see the same things we do.
“It was natural for scientists to assume that bird vision is like human vision,” Geoffrey Hill, an Auburn University ornithologist and the author of Bird Coloration, said. “After all, birds and humans are both active by day, we use bright colors as cues. … No one really imagined birds might see the world differently.”
Did you know that birds actually see in different and more colors than we do?
According to behavioral biologist Cynthia Tedore, humans have three types of color receptors, which are sensitive to red, blue and green frequencies of light.
Birds have the same receptors except for one difference. They have a fourth receptor, which is sensitive to violet light.
With behavioral biologist Cynthia Tedore, they used a multispectral camera with specially designed filters to mimic what a bird can see.
They used the camera to project images of what birds view when they see leaves in front of them.
The multispectral images reveal a greater contrast between the upper and lower surfaces of leaves because of the UV sensitivity. Each leaf’s position and orientation stand out in a very clear, 3D way.
“What appears to be a green mess to humans are clearly distinguishable leaves for birds. No one knew about this until this study,” Biologist Dan-Eric Nilsson said.
This wasn’t the situation before.
Scientists believed that birds and humans saw the same things, the same colors, and the same vision.
“It’s an evolutionary thing,” Dr. Scott Werner said. “We used to look at a bird’s rods and cones to determine its vision capabilities. That’s still true, but in the last 10 years, techniques like molecular genetics, electroretinography, and electron microscopy have revealed much more.”
Dr. Scott Werner is the Research Wildlife Biologist at the USDA’s National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. And he has spent years studying the behavioral patterns of different animals.
And technological advancement has made his job a little bit easier.
Molecular genetics allows researchers and scientists to examine the bird’s genes at the molecular level and see what it sees. A study of the bird’s DNA will allow scientists to examine visual perception in certain ways.
Electroretinography works by measuring the bird’s retina’s responses when they look for food, their prey, and other birds. It measures electrical responses and uses these responses to indicate its strength or weakness towards the visual cue.
Electron microscopy is the use of electron microscopes to let the scientists see the small details in a much more higher resolution and shorter wavelengths.
“We’re still learning how an anatomical trait determines visual perception,” Dr. Werner said. “What a bird can see and how it uses that information are two different things.”
And through research, scientists found out that they use this information to look for food, to hunt for prey, to recognize different eggs and plumage.
The UV light makes the fruit or other nutritional food sources stick out among leaves and other plants. It also allows big predator birds to spot behavior that belongs to their prey. The UV light also helps them recognize the genders of different birds for mating or to tell the birds apart.
More research is being done to understand the behavior of birds. It’s going to be interesting what scientists find out next.
Watch the video below to learn more about how birds really see the world.
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