I am constantly amazed at what an eagle can see. Of course, most people know they have great eyesight, but its only when you get an elevated perspective on the river, that you can literally see how difficult it is to pick out fish from the waves and currents. Yet they just don’t seem to miss much.
So how good is an eagle’s eyesight? Here’s a snippet from the National Eagle Center.
Eagles use both monocular and binocular vision, meaning they can use their eyes independently or together depending on what they are looking at.
An eagle eye has two focal points (called “fovea” [singular] or “foveae” [plural]) one of which looks forward and the other to the side at about a 45 degree angle. These two foveae allow eagles to see straight ahead and to the side simultaneously. The fovea at 45 degrees is used to view things at long distances. An eagle can see something the size of a rabbit at more than three miles away.
Eagles can also see more colors than the human eye and they can also see in the UV range of light, which allows them to see something like the urine trail of their prey. Plus they see pretty well at night too!
And here I am wearing bifocals.