About owls

Explore how an owl's eyes function differently than your eyes with this simple project. You will need a cardboard tube, such as one from a roll of toilet paper. Cover one eye with your hand. Hold a pen or pencil about a foot in front of your face. (You can have a helper do this for you, if you want.)

Keep looking straight ahead while you start moving the pencil to the side. Even though your eye is facing forward, you should still be able to see the pencil out of the "corner of your eye." Stop moving the pencil when you can't see it anymore. How far did it get to the side before it disappeared? Now, hold the tube up to one eye and look through it at the pencil in front of your face. Start moving the pencil to the side – how far did it get before it disappeared?

This time turn your head as the pencil moves so you can still see it through the tube. Stop when you get to the point where the pencil disappeared in step two. How much did you have to turn your head to see the pencil at that point?

Owls have two eyes, just like us. But the way they see is different. Because of their eyes, an owl can see much better in the dark than we can. However, an owl can only see straight ahead. This is why they need such flexible necks, so they can turn their entire head in nearly every direction. An owl's eyes cannot move around like ours can. Try looking up, towards the ceiling, only moving your eyes. An owl would have to lift his head to do what you just did.

Our eyes are in front, on our face. But we can see to the side without moving our heads! This is called peripheral vision. Our eyes are able to take in a lot. What we see with both our eyes open is called the field of view. We have a wider field of view than owls do. When you held the tube up to one eye, it narrowed your field of vision. You were no longer able to see out of the "corner" of that eye. This is similar to how an owl sees all the time.