I’m about to go down a long and convoluted rabbit hole that I suspect at least some readers will wish they hadn’t followed. It’s your choice.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe photo was taken on August 17, 2010 and the first time I looked at it I was struck by the huge disparity in pupil size between the bird in the middle and the two others. All three birds are looking in the same direction (at me) but the pupil of the middle bird appears to be about 5-6 times smaller than the pupils of the other two. I posted the photo to Feathered Photography back in 2013 but I forgot to mention the unusual disparity in pupil size in my text and few if any readers noticed it back then so until yesterday I hadn’t thought about it in all those years.<\/p>\n
But last night I noticed two things that had escaped me earlier. Even though all three owls are looking at me their heads aren’t all facing quite the same direction. The bird in the middle is facing me directly but the other two appear to be facing (not looking) slightly over my left shoulder. And then I noticed that the catch light on the middle bird is almost dead center on its smaller pupil while the catch lights of the other two birds are significantly to the right of center on their much larger pupils.<\/p>\n
The position of the catch lights of all three birds “matches” the direction they were facing relative to the sun. To me that suggests that as a result of their relative head angles more light was reaching the retina of the middle bird resulting in a smaller pupil. The dramatic difference in pupil size seems surprising to me but I can think of no other explanation that makes sense.<\/p>\n
So, I assumed they were facing<\/em> the same direction because they at least appeared to be looking<\/em> in the same direction, but they weren’t. Not quite.<\/p>\nRon<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n- I’m still thinking that it’s all more complicated than I’ve stated above. Owls can’t move their eyes within their heads, they can only move their heads. So if they were all looking straight at me their head angles should be exactly the same but they don’t appear to be. So I’m still at least a little confused. A little help from my friends?<\/em><\/li>\n
- In another recent blog post I made a claim about the position of catch lights on the eye relative to the sun angle that several readers challenged. What I’m seeing in this photo suggests to me that those readers were right and I was wrong. Won’t be the first time…\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Addendum: Several readers, including Porcupine below, are reporting (some with documentation) that owls dilate their pupils independently and voluntarily – something I didn’t know. Once again I’m learning a lot from my readers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nearly eleven years after I took the photo I think I finally solved the mystery. Maybe. Sort of.<\/p>\n
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