Eagles are regal, powerful animals. At the top of the bird food chain, they can grow up to 7-foot wide and weigh up to 15 lbs. They can carry their weight (15 pounds) while flying. This lets them carry an animal about the weight of a baby mule deer. Their eyes are extremely powerful, about 3-times more powerful than a human’s eye (their eyesight is about 20/5 vs. 20/20 for a human). The phrase “eagle eyes” says it all.
About eagles’ eyesight
An eagle’s eye fills a large portion of its head. Unlike a human, their eyes are fixed – they cannot move their eyes in the eyeball socket. To look around, they must turn their head. When hunting, they swivel their head back and forth looking for prey. Their fixed eye design gives the eye great stability.
Eagles can use each eye individually for monocular vision or both eyes together for binocular vision. In addition, each eye has two focal points. One focal point looks forward while the other looks to the side. This lets the eagle look forward and sideways at the same time. In fact, they can see almost all the way behind their heads.
Eagles can see something the size of a rabbit up to three miles away. If humans had eagle eyes, they would be able to see an ant crawling on the sidewalk from atop a 10-story building.
Eagles can see many more colors than humans. If you could see with eagle-eye colors, it would be an unimaginable colorful array. They can even see UV light colors which lets them see the urine trail of prey. To top off their remarkable eyesight, they can see in the dark too!
Bald Eagle picture gallery
Check out more pictures of this beautiful animal in the Bald Eagle picture gallery below.
Image Credits
In-Article Image Credits
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) via Wikipedia Commons by Paul Friel with usage type - Creative Commons License. September 24, 2005Bald eagle via Wikimedia Commons with usage type - Creative Commons License. June 1, 2009
Bald Eagle in Alaska via Wikimedia Commons by Andy Morffew with usage type - Creative Commons License. March 12, 2016
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) on a bird show on the castle Augustusburg, Germany via Wikimedia Commons with usage type - Creative Commons License. December 6, 2009
Head of Bald Eagle via Wikimedia Commons by Martin Falbisoner with usage type - Creative Commons License. May 12, 2013
Haliaeetus leucocephalus or as more commonly called... Bald Eagle via Wikimedia Commons by Saffron Blaze with usage type - Creative Commons License. February 19, 2012
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, Andover via Wikimedia Commons by Lewis Hulbert with usage type - Creative Commons License. August 7, 2014
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) on a bird show on the castle Augustusburg, Germany via Wikimedia Commons by Jorg Hempel with usage type - Creative Commons License. April 25, 2009
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald Eagle via Wikimedia Commons with usage type - Creative Commons License. May 3, 2008
Bald Eagle in tree at Norfolk Botanical Garden via Wikimedia Commons by Drew Avery with usage type - Creative Commons License. April 16, 2010
Bald Eagle in Kachemak Bay Alaska about to take flight via Wikimedia Commons by Andy Morffew with usage type - Creative Commons License. March 15, 2016
Featured Image Credit
Haliaeetus leucocephalus or as more commonly called... Bald Eagle via Wikimedia Commons by Saffron Blaze with usage type - Creative Commons License. February 19, 2012
