Bright Orange Pigeon Hides

[red_stag88]

Thats also why rabbits have a white tail, fallow/kudu/impala white ****, etc, So when they are going full pace away from wolves/other large predetors they bounce and confuse the persuing predator.

[Andy Austin]

Just to put a sientific view on the subject! The following is a little write up which may inprove our vision. Looks like pigeons see the forth dimension (in colour). The references to reds may explain why the orange is not seen by pigeons as a threat, possibly it blends into the greens under uv. Possibly sunlight levels could make a differnce as to how and which spectrum they see and hence colour. Also they coould see some infrared, thermal imaging pigeons? is that why bale hides work better than camo netting?

 

Colour Vision in Birds

Bird colour vision differs from that of humans in two main ways. First, birds can see ultraviolet light. It appears that UV vision is a general property of diurnal birds, having been found in over 35 species using a combination of microspectrophotometry, electrophysiology, and behavioural methods. So, are birds like bees? Bees, like humans, have three receptor types, although unlike humans they are sensitive to ultraviolet light, with loss of sensitivity at the red end of the spectrum. This spectral range is achieved by having a cone type that is sensitive to UV wavelengths, and two that are sensitive to "human visible" wavelengths. Remember, because 'colour' is the result of differences in output of receptor types, this means that bees do not simply see additional 'UV colours', they will perceive even human-visible spectra in different hues to those which humans experience. Fortunately, as any nature film crew knows, we can gain an insight to the bee colour world by converting the blue, red and green channels of a video camera into UV, blue and green channels. Bees are trichromatic, like humans, so the three dimensions of bee colour can be mapped onto the three dimensions of human colour. With birds, and indeed many other non-mammalian vertebrates, life is not so simple. As well as seeing very well in the ultraviolet, all bird species that have been studied have at least four types of cone. They have four, not three, dimensional colour vision. Recent studies have confirmed tetra-chromacy in some fish and turtles, so perhaps we should not be surprised about this. It is mammals, including humans, that have poor colour vision! Whilst UV reception increases the range of wavelengths over which birds can see, increased dimensionality produces a qualitative change in the nature of colour perception that probably cannot be translated into human experience. Bird colours are not simply refinements of the hues that humans, or bees, see, these are hues unknown to any trichromat.

 

Andy Austin

[M ROBSON]

Andy, we must have read the same web site.

[brain dead]

Yeah no offence but i didn't read all that because i'm warn out but alot of animals see different colours to us dont they like some hear higher or lower pitched sound wavelenght stuff, but iff they see grass as yellow surely our green camo to us looks yellow to them. so in principel it should work howw its supposed to.

[Chris B123]

Hi to all, I have hared that as well about the bright orange that they use on the road works memt to be very good got someand going to try it and let you all know. My mate said that the birds cant see it.

Chris B.

[M ROBSON]

This answers the colour vision question!

[sharp_shooter]

I also agree. a butterfly for example. It has an eye pattern on its wings to warn off predators. Or any over animal like a bee or wasp or red frog, they all use colour to warn prey away

[webber]

By gum AA, all them big words, but well worth the read.

 

My previous knowledge was obviously flawed.

 

Many thanks for clarifying the issue.

 

webber

[Columbus Polumbus]

I always thought the stripes on a zebra were vertical

[gay_sasquatch]

Why do you Brits shoot pigeons? For sport or do you eat them? I never really thought about shooting one before, I have only kicked a few.

[mallinson]

A bit of both

[squintshot]

of course animals are colour blind i've never known of one thats passed that little book the opticians have with the dots!!!!

[sharp_shooter]

This, i thought was an interesting concept. Both humans and all other animals can go deaf(cant hear) so in principle cant all other animals also suffer from similar types of long/short sighted or any other form of impaired vision!?! If this is so then we, the hunters, are at a huge advantage to those animals who have impaired vision because we may be blurred completely out of focus, this will effect their ability to see movement so therefore our hunting could be made easier. Nice to hear if anyone else agrees with my concept

[Salopian]

Just a thought, can pigeons see shot string? Whenever I shoot at a pigeon that seems a dead cert. the ****** jinks!!!!

[sutty]

Salopian

Good question and one i have been wondering about myself for some time.

I have noticed that ,especially on high birds, they jink at the last split second and what seems like another in the bag turns out to be a miss?

It would be interesting to know other members views on this .

As for them having impaired vision ,well i have seen lots of pheasants with specs on ?

(sorry sharp-shooter couldn't resist that one )

regards sutty

[Salopian]

Sutty, pheasants with specs on? Were they black melanistics?

[Teal]

As for them having impaired vision ,well i have seen lots of pheasants with specs on ?

I think you spell peasants without an H mate. Besides what are you doing shooting at them anyway!!

[Scunnybunny]

I hope you don't shoot Baldric, He's a Pleasant Peasant.