Bald Eagle Eyesight
The eyesight of a Bald Eagle is impressive. Part of the reason for their excellent vision is that these birds of prey have two centers of focus (foveae), which allow them to see both forward and to the side at the same time. Cone cells, one of three types of photoreceptor cells in the retina, perceive color, fine detail and rapid movement. In a human, the fovea has 200,000 cones per millimeter; in the central fovea of a Bald Eagle’s eye, there are about a million cones per millimeter. An eagle’s eye is almost as large as a human’s, but its sharpness is at least four times that of a person with perfect vision.
Bald eagles are capable of seeing fish in the water from several hundred feet above, while soaring, gliding or in flapping flight. (They locate and catch dead fish much more rapidly and efficiently than live fish, because dead fish float with their light underside up, making them easier to see.) It is very likely that a Bald Eagle can identify a rabbit moving almost a mile away. This would mean that an eagle flying at an altitude of 1000 feet over open country could spot prey over an area of almost 3 square miles from a fixed position. (photo: recently fledged, juvenile Bald Eagle)
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