{"id":147583,"date":"2025-03-21T18:29:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T23:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windycityparrot.com\/?p=147583"},"modified":"2025-03-21T18:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T23:29:43","slug":"how-birds-see-and-think-in-a-way-thats-not-super-science-y","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/?p=147583","title":{"rendered":"How Birds See and Think, in a Way That&#8217;s Not Super Science-y"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">So, birds have been around for a loooong time, and over millions of years, they&#8217;ve developed some seriously impressive eyesight. Think of it like this: they&#8217;re basically visual superheroes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Why are bird eyes so good?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They see tiny, fast-moving things: Raptors, like hawks, can spot a mouse running across a field from way up high (up to a mile). That&#8217;s some serious zoom!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They see in tricky lighting: Little birds can find hidden fruit and insects in dense jungles, and owls can navigate in the dark.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They can even see underwater: Seagulls and kingfishers can spot fish swimming below the surface.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They have lots of color vision: Birds have more types of color-sensing cells than we do, so they can see colors we can&#8217;t even imagine, including ultraviolet light.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Their eyes are big: If you look at a bird&#8217;s skull, you&#8217;ll see that their eyes take up a huge amount of space. This means they dedicate a lot of brain power to vision.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">But it&#8217;s not just about seeing well, it&#8217;s about thinking well too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe title=\"How Birds Really See the World\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bG2y8dG2QIM\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Birds, especially smart ones like parrots and crows, have really good brains. They can do some pretty complex thinking, almost as good as primates!<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They learn fast: Crows can tell the difference between Picasso and Monet paintings. Pigeons can even recognize cancer in medical images!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They learn rules and adapt: Birds can figure out patterns and change their behavior when the rules change.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They can figure things out: Some birds can understand relationships between things, even if they&#8217;re not directly connected.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They categorize objects: Birds can tell the difference between humans and other things, or even between different types of human behavior.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They recognize shapes: Birds can recognize objects even if they only see a small part of them, or if they&#8217;re partially hidden.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They can be tricked by illusions: Just like us, birds can be fooled by optical illusions, which shows they&#8217;re not just reacting to what they see, but actually thinking about it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">How does their brain work?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/product\/full-spectrum-economy-daylight-bulb-with-clamp-light-timer\/<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Okay, this gets a little more technical, but we&#8217;ll keep it simple:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Bird brains are different from mammal brains. They don&#8217;t have the same layered structure, but they still work in similar ways.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They have similar basic wiring: Even though the brain are different, they operate on the same basic principals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">They have two main visual pathways: One pathway helps them figure out &#8220;what&#8221; they&#8217;re seeing, and the other helps them figure out &#8220;where&#8221; it is.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Their eyes have very specialized cells that help them to see the world in very specific ways.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Why does this matter?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe title=\"Peregrine Falcons Hunt Pigeon in High Speed Chase | 4K Narrated Film\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wkNeehdkKeM\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Understanding how birds see and think helps us understand:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">How birds evolved.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">How brains work in general.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">How birds are able to do amazing visual feats.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Basically, birds are visual geniuses, and scientists are still figuring out how they do it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">Written by Mitch Rezman and the Windy City Parrot content team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, birds have been around for a loooong time, and over millions of years, they&#8217;ve developed some seriously impressive eyesight. Think of it like this: they&#8217;re basically visual superheroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[193,198,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bathing-and-health","category-bird-lighting","category-birds-lighting"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/macaw-parrot-sunglasses-8.jpg?resize=600%2C445&ssl=1",600,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/macaw-parrot-sunglasses-8.jpg?resize=463%2C348&ssl=1",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/macaw-parrot-sunglasses-8.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/macaw-parrot-sunglasses-8.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/macaw-parrot-sunglasses-8.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phcfkq-Con","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/152474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}