do birds have panoramic vision ?

[bruce]

do birds have panoramic vision ?

like a parrot for instance which has eyes on the side of its head,
it must have an amazing vision which no human has seen,
i wonder what it would be like, or how it could be explained,

 

[Mudkips]

Parrots have more of a panoramic view then we do, but at the cost of better depth perception (through binocular vision/stereopsis).

Many people aren't aware that birds will often bob their heads up and down if they want to check how far away something is.
We don't need to bob because we have 2 eyes facing the same direction from slightly different angles.

You can try it yourself: cover one eye and look at one spot for 5 seconds without moving. Then bob your head and you should notice that your brain makes much more sense of the situation with the extra info.
Owls and other extreme predators can take it to the extreme - 2 eyes and a bobbing head to track a single target
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Pmm4L_bQI"]Owl Head Bobbing - YouTube[/ame]
It's often mistaken as a dancing bird...
Of course, thats not to say there aren't birds out there that love to dance!

 

[henpecked]

Mudkips hit the nail on the head. Birds like hawks and owls have their eyes looking forward so that the fields of vision over lap for better depth perception, because they are attacking .Prey birds have wide set eyes for wider field of vision to help notice predators.

 

[mcw009]

Parrots have more of a panoramic view then we do, but at the cost of better depth perception (through binocular vision/stereopsis).

Many people aren't aware that birds will often bob their heads up and down if they want to check how far away something is.
We don't need to bob because we have 2 eyes facing the same direction from slightly different angles.

You can try it yourself: cover one eye and look at one spot for 5 seconds without moving. Then bob your head and you should notice that your brain makes much more sense of the situation with the extra info.
Owls and other extreme predators can take it to the extreme - 2 eyes and a bobbing head to track a single target
Owl Head Bobbing - YouTube
It's often mistaken as a dancing bird...
Of course, thats not to say there aren't birds out there that love to dance!

Birds also have oblong eyes, so they can't turn them inside their eye sockets as well as we can. Bobbing and head-turning are required to overcome that.

But frankly a wide field of view is the least to be jealous of birds' vision.