this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Superbowl

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For owls that are superb.

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Photos by Arnab Roy Wildlife

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[–] casmael@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wow I had no idea they could dilate their pupils at will 🫨 that’s very impressive to be honest. Also having yellow eyes doesn’t seem very realistic imo 😂

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

The yellow eyes make me think of cats. The orange ones are my most attention grabbing to me, as they look like something from a fantasy setting.

Here's a video of a Screech Owl being a goof, but you can see it adjusting its eyeballs very frequently. It's also neat to see just how fast they do it as well. It isn't like a camera trying to autofocus, it's just a quick twitch, as fast as a blink or flexing a bicep.

This Eagle Owl is showing off uneven dilation. One eye can be in shade, while the other is in sunlight, and this allows them to get peak performance out of both eyes.

Here is an extreme example of uneven dilation during an eye exam.