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I like to sit on my front porch and watch the birds at my several feeders. I have various kinds to attract different birds.
What I've noticed is that certain birds (Downy Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers, in my case) watch to see if you're watching. If they see you, especially with binoculars....
Where do they get the binoculars?
Pay close attention to woodpeckers' eyelids--not only do they have nictating membranes ("third eyelid") but their upper eyelid closes from front to back away from the beak, as opposed to top--> down, which would be back--> front as they perch upright on the side of a tree.-- as they raise all those wood chips. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bbsGLxxYEw...id+flicker.JPG
Animals that are arboreal &/or fly and those that are predators and have to accurately judge lunges at targets need well developed binocular vison-- two eyes pointed forwards. ... Prey animals tend to have eyes on each side of the head to provide a more nearly 360deg field of vison, and usually can't focus very well. They're more benefited by detecting motion from a predator than needing to focus sharply on it.
That could have been phrased better. Sometimes I think they are the ones with the binoculars. And from what you said, their eyes are better than my binoculars.
And yes, their visual acuity is nothing short of amazing. I've got a group of about 125 Canada geese that have habituated to my presence, and their ability to distinguish me out of a crowd of people at 75-100 yards distance, is dumbfounding. And their ability to recognize predator birds that are just dots in the sky to me, is extremely impressive
Modern humans have greatly reduced vision, largely because of reading. Birding in Costa Rico with my 8x binoculars, I met 70 year old farmers whu could see birds and their field marks better with naked eye, than me with binocs. They couldn't read, and hadn't spent yeas, or even days of their lives, close-focusing on books.
I love hummingbirds and I planted salvias in my yard as well as hanging two feeders. I found some amazing facts about them:
Studies have shown that hummingbirds can remember migration routes and every flower they’ve ever visited. They can also figure out how long to wait between visits so the flowers have time to generate more nectar. They can even recognize humans!
I didn't notice until I started taking bird photos, how much birds (and probably most wildlife) watch us. We are clearly perceived as predators, and birds will tolerate me in the vicinity, if I am not paying much attention to them. But if I stare at them, and worse, point my long lens camera at them, they usually fly away, even from a distance of 100-150 feet.
I love watching birds, but I don't normally use my binoculars so I cannot see what they are looking at. I don't think they stare, but rather their eyes are always moving, looking for food sources, territory invaders, and predators.
All the birds that come into my backyard, mostly doves, myna, humming birds,etc can see me clearly thru the floor to ceiling jalousie windows, they don't mind me watching, jumping up and down flailing my arms and so on but if I just barely crack open the door they scatter in a total panic. Weird.
I offshore fished for 25 years, and the birds were our eyes a lot of times. When the tuna were around feeding on flying fish, we would see the flying fish lift off and glide for 100 yards or more and you just knew there would be a big "hole" in the water as tuna would follow it the whole time and crash on it just as it hit the water.
Another would be the frigates when marlin/sailfishing in FL, Costa Rica, Venezuela etc. You may see a few up high in the distance. Those were the birds to always look for. We would get to them and they would be circling way up, seen as tiny specks they were so high. Look on the machine and we would mark bait 200/400 ft down. And lots of it. We would then know that we needed to stay there. And sure enough, as the frigates would lower, we would see the bait getting shallower on the machine. Trolling 5 baits for marlin it was always exciting when a couple frigates would show up behind the boat, looking intently. They can't get wet so would hope the marlin they are seeing coming up from the depths would cause the "rigged dead bait" (or any actual living bait) we were pulling to jump out of the water so the bird could grab it.
Those birds would see those Marlin come up from the depths and as one would rise into our spread of baits the birds would follow it from one to the other. We would know exactly what rod to go for and by the time the bird would be about 25 ft or closer we'd see the fin or bill of the fish.
Of course, it didn't always work out that way as sometimes they would see another bird with a fish, and they'd go off and try to steal it. The Man-of-war sure likes to steal from the others. They don't play well together!
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