CHICKEN EYESIGHT

As beautiful as chicken is,  and profitable as chicken business can be, we as a chicken owner's should know the information on chicken eyesight.

Chicken eyesight is amazing! These chicken can see better color than humans, they can detect and see light and color shades better than humans, chicken have three eyelids, they can move each eye independently and have a 300 degree field of vision without turning their head before the can see.

Chickens see the same way we do. Light comes in through the cornea and iris and then stimulates nerve endings in the retina at the back of the eyeball. One of the big differences, however, is that chickens have tetra-chromatic vision, while we have tri-chromatic. Chickens have four wavelengths (blue, red, green and ultraviolet light) while human can only have three (blue, red and green.)

Chickens’ color vision is different from human because they have colored filters mixed with nerve cells. They are like little drops of oil filtering out different wavelengths and act similarly to wearing yellow goggles.

The fact that chickens see an extra sector of the light spectrum means that everything they see looks different from what human see. We have no description or idea for how much ultraviolet light is reflected from any substance. Chickens also have better motion sensing ability than we do. This is good to know if you use or plan on using artificial lights in your coop. These lights flicker on and off at a rate above what we can see. This is very annoying to your flock and may cause them to start bullying .

Birds as well as other mammals have a structure called a fovea in their retinas. It basically is a small pit that, because of its shape, acts as an image enlarger. Chickens have two foveae, which act a little differently. One is for distant vision, and one is for close up. The interesting thing is that the up close one is oval and sideways and that’s why, when you approach your chicken, they will often bob their heads and tilt their heads sideways to get the image of you into a clearer view. Shockingly, chickens actually can’t really recognize flock members until they are within about 24 inches.

Now don’t go drawing any conclusions that chickens are the best seeing creatures on the planet! Chickens, like humans and other animals, are blind when its completely dark. We need color and/or light to see so when there is no light we cannot see. Chickens, however, are blind when it is not completely dark. Regarding this issue, since chickens are like zombies at night, it makes them highly easy target to predators at night.

Sometimes when we take a picture of our chicken we see that the chicken’s eye is hazy-looking. At first glance this looks like a glitch in the camera but actually, this is the chicken’s third eyelid called the nictitating membrane. The nictitating membrane is positioned next to the eyeball, underneath its other two eyelids and works independently from them. It operates by sliding from the front to the back of the eye. It has two purposes: cleaning and protecting. When a chicken takes a dirt bath, you will see the nictitating membrane appear. This is because it is protecting the eye from dirt entry. Another time you may see it appear is when your flock is sleeping. They sometimes don’t close their eyes completely and thus, the nictitating membrane covers the eye instead.
Don't forget, looks on your chicken eye can help to detect sickness in them.