Raptor Vision

Today we learned about all the cool aspects of raptor vision and how a hawk's eyesight is so much better than a human's. In a human eye there are two kinds of structures - rods and cones, the same goes for birds of prey. However, the major difference is that humans have only 3 kinds of cones (they're the structures that let us perceive color) while raptors have 4. Our cones are red, green, and blue. Raptors have red, green, blue, and ultraviolet. Because of this and other aspects of their eyes, raptors have the equivalent of an HDTV whereas humans have eyesight that is more like an old analog TV. It's just ridiculous thinking about how there are colors and other things that birds can see that we can't even comprehend!

Another thing we did today was learn about leather working and how to make the cuffs and jesses that go around a bird's leg. The cuffs are the anklet part and the jesses are the pieces of leather that dangle from the cuffs. Dr. Dan showed us how to cut out the strips then we used our own fingers to guesstimate the size that we needed to make the cuffs. We then had to add jess grease to the cuffs and jesses and had to massage the leather so it would be softer and not as stiff. Needless to say, a side effect of making the leather softer was having the softest hands ever!

Claire with her cuffs and jesses

Cuffs and jesses that I made