Lucas Eleanor A, Martin Graham R, Rocamora Gérard, Portugal Steven J
Department of Biological Sciences, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK.
School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Naturwissenschaften. 2024 Jul 17;111(4):40. doi: 10.1007/s00114-024-01926-4.
The visual field of a bird defines the amount of information that can be extracted from the environment around it, using the eyes. Previous visual field research has left large phylogenetic gaps, where tropical bird species have been comparatively understudied. Using the ophthalmoscopic technique, we measured the visual fields of seven tropical seabird species, to understand what are the primary determinants of their visual fields. The visual field topographies of the seven seabird species were relatively similar, despite the two groups of Terns (Laridae) and Shearwaters (Procellariidae) being phylogenetically distant. We propose this similarity is due to their largely similar foraging ecology. These findings support previous research that foraging ecology rather than relatedness is the key determining factor behind a bird's visual field topography. Some bird species were identified to have more limited binocular fields, such as Brown Noddies (Anous stolidus) where binocularity onsets lower down within the visual field, resulting in a larger blind area about the head.
鸟类的视野决定了其通过眼睛从周围环境中获取的信息量。以往的视野研究存在较大的系统发育空白，热带鸟类物种相对研究较少。我们使用检眼镜技术测量了七种热带海鸟的视野，以了解其视野的主要决定因素。尽管燕鸥（鸥科）和鹱（鹱科）这两组在系统发育上距离较远，但这七种海鸟的视野地形图相对相似。我们认为这种相似性是由于它们的觅食生态在很大程度上相似。这些发现支持了先前的研究，即觅食生态而非亲缘关系是鸟类视野地形图背后的关键决定因素。一些鸟类物种被确定具有更有限的双眼视野，例如褐燕鸥（Anous stolidus），其双眼视觉在视野中较低位置开始，导致头部周围有更大的盲区。
