Through Birds’ Eyes: What does vision tell us about foraging in cormorants?
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- Centre for Ornithology, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, UK
- Document Type:
- Presentation
- Date:
- Received 28 September 2007 15:43 UTC; Posted 28 September 2007
- Subjects:
- Ecology
- Abstract:
Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo are regarded as visually-guided, pursuit-dive foragers, so it would be expected that they have excellent vision much like aerial predators, such as hawks which detect and pursue prey from a distance. However, my research shows that underwater the visual acuity of Cormorants is surprisingly poor (in fact, similar or worse than unaided humans under water) and very inferior to that of aerial predatory birds. I suggest that Cormorants are able to detect typical prey items only at close range and conclude that cormorants are not the aquatic equivalent of hawks. It seems that their efficient hunting involves the use of specialised foraging techniques which employ rapid neck extension to capture prey that cormorants flush from hiding places; much like the foraging techniques of herons. Cormorants seem to be hunting an “escaping blur”. Like herons, the eye movements and visual fields of cormorants allow visual scanning for escaping prey in a wide arc about the head. The ability of cormorants to see prey held in the mouth may help to aid its identification when it is brought to the surface before swallowing.
- Collection:
- Second Nature Lecture Series
- Presented at:
- Second Nature Events Series, Second Nature Island, Second Life, , 19 September 2007
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Additional information
- License:
- This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
- How to cite this document:
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Martin, Graham. Through Birds’ Eyes: What does vision tell us about foraging in cormorants?. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2007.1188.1> (2007)
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