BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Jan. 24, 2019

Using a specially designed camera, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded for the first time in recreating how birds see colours in their surroundings. The study reveals that birds see a very different reality compared to what we see.

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In the combined image above, the photograph on the left show’s leaves in the colours that a human observer would see them. The photograph on the right, taken by a special camera, shows the same leaves in the colours that a bird would see them.
As the images show, birds see a very different reality compared to what humans see.
- Human colour vision is based on the RGB combination — red, green and blue.
- Birds’ colour vision is based on four colours — the RGB combination and also ultraviolet.
Birds see contrasts in dense forest foliage, whereas people only see a wall of green.
- For birds, the upper sides of leaves appear much lighter in ultraviolet. From below, the leaves are very dark. In this way the three-dimensional structure of dense foliage is obvious to birds. This in turn makes it easy for them to move, find food and navigate.
- People, on the other hand, see the foliage in green.
The camera was designed by scientists from Lund University in Sweden, who have published their findings in Nature Communications.