Using Their Senses

Discover the fascinating ways birds survivethrough sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.

- Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman

FINCHES, SPARROWS AND CARDINALS are happily filling up at your backyard feeders. All of a sudden, they quickly fly away, diving into the bushes. Less than a minute later, a hawk swoops through the yard. How did the songbirds know the hawk was coming? Did they smell, or maybe hear, it? To figure this out, it helps to know more about the senses that birds use to experience the world around them.

Bird’s-Eye View

The term “eagle-eyed” for sharp vision is no accident. Nearly all birds see at least two or three times as much detail as humans, making them able to spot food— or approaching predators—that much farther away. Most birds have excellent color vision, too. Night birds like owls may have a biological trade-off: They see very well in dim light, but their perception of colors may not be as good.

Another advantage birds have is seeing ultraviolet light. To humans, male and female northern mockingbirds look exactly the same—but birds are able to tell the difference because the two have different ultraviolet markings.

Because their eyes are on the sides of their heads, most birds take in two separate pictures of their world, one on each side, with only a limited area of twoeyed vision toward the front. That means while they see lots of detail, it is harder for them to judge distance on the sides until they move their heads.