Having your eyes stuck on the side of your head is great to avoid turning up on someone else’s menu. Providing almost 360 deg vision, wide-set eyes give pigeons the best chance of escape. But they also have lousy stereo vision. With little overlap between the views of both eyes, no one knew whether the birds are able to perceive depth or are trapped in a flat panorama: cue the comical walk. Pigeons are easily recognised from their eccentric gait, bobbing their heads to and fro. The head movement allows the goofy birds to stabilise their vision when strutting forward, by essentially holding the head still when the head bobs back. The question was, could the birds take advantage of the rapid rebound, when the head bobs forward, to help them to gauge the depth and distance of objects? To find out, Yuya Hataji, Hika Kuroshima and Kazuo Fujita, from Kyoto University, Japan, played some sleight of hand on the birds to find out whether their ungainly deportment allows them to distinguish near from far.

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One Response to Head bobbing gives pigeons a sense of perspective

  1. RyanHiroshige says:

    you see this type of head-bobbing stability in many avian creatures related to pigeons like chickens. the head ability to remain stable is essential for them because they have specialized retinals that are designed to detect motion, but can only do so if their field of vision does not change. if their head were to move with their body, their eyes would continually pick up their motion and thus they wouldnt be able to distinguish between their motion and a predators motion. by ensuring their motion is stable, they can easily detect motion in their own environment.

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