One-Eyed Titmouse

sm4him · Jan 8, 2013

This is one of my Tufted Titmouse birds (are two of them Tufted Titmice?) I'd taken several pictures of this one and kept thinking something was wrong with its eye but could never really got a shot of that side. A few weeks ago, I finally got this shot, which I promptly forgot I had. Found it this morning when I was looking for a particular photo for the Faces thread, so I processed it and think it came out fairly well.

I assume it is blind in this eye--the other side looks completely normal--which leads me to wonder how on earth a bird gets by, flying around with vision only on ONE side??

12072012_0087edittake2_web by sm4him, on Flickr

Designer · Jan 8, 2013

Hey! You got it! Good powers of observation, BTW.

As for the bird just moving around, obviously he can do that, but avoiding predators is where he is more vulnerable than the two-eyed birds.

sm4him · Jan 8, 2013

Thanks, Designer!

I know that they CAN get around with one eye, but it just makes me wonder about how tough it must make it. I mean, I wonder what their depth perception is like--it *already* seems tough enough to me the way they come swooping in from flight and land lightly on a branch. Having only one eye must kind of make it a challenge to judge the distance to the branch, I'd think.
But then, I'm not a bird...though I've been accused of having the brain of one before. :lmao:

Predators are certainly the biggest danger, but honestly, my little sight-challenged titmouse doesn't seem to miss a step!