Eagles & Hawks
Let’s start this list with a term I’m pretty sure you have heard of called “Hawk-eyed” it’s when someone who
can spot people or things from a far away distance and very quickly, you mostly find him over your shoulders
in a second no matter how much you try to hide. Well, this description says it all, there is no other bird or
animal out there to always appear behind your shoulders in a second or two before making you his flight
partner then finally his dinner.
Though the term is about the
hawk, this works out for the
eagle as well, and even more.
But how does the eagle or the
hawk have this major hunting
abilities? It’s not just about their
strong bodies or their astonishing
wings, the secret actually lies in
their eyes. An average eagle has
very large eyes accounting for at
least 15% of its body weight unlike
us, we have eyes that account just
for 1% max, with eyes this big it
allows those hunters to grasp a
much bigger image on their retina
and along with the huge size, the
eagles’ eyes are fixed in position,
which means they are physically
fixed to their skull, they can’t
move it around like we do and this
also contributes to their hunting
abilities; as by not moving they are
able to focus on their prey even
12
at a very high speed chase from
way up. And not only do they have
their eyes focused on the prize, but
they don’t even blink, terrified yet?
All of those characters just
contributed to their perfect visual
acuity but we haven’t yet talked
about how they see the colors out
there. Eagles are mostly up, they
have their nests build up so high
on mountains and if there was a
higher place they would probably
be there, being that far away and
still being able to discriminate
between preys down there on the
ground and actually just being
able to spot if there’s anything
on the ground is breathtaking.
Those abilities are thanks to the
amazing retina they have. While we
—humans— have retinas composed
of 95% rods and 5% cones with
a distribution of 200,000/mm^2,
eagles have 1.000.000/mm^2
with 80% cones and just 20% rods,
the huge number attributes for their
perfect long distance vision allowing
them to see everything from their
nest windows up the mountain,
while the upper hand of cones
makes them very color sensitive
they can tell all the details down
the forest apart. Eagles are also
tetrachromats with an extra cone
for UV light like most other birds.
So as you can see, with a body
frame like theirs, wings so sharp,
eyes focused on the target, long
distance vision, and those special
UV glasses inside their eyes, eagles
are not to be messed with, and they
are not just the #1 on the hunting
casually, but it would be accurate
to say they own the hunting market.
The Recap Magazine
July 2018 Issue
13