Do chickens see colors or black and white?

[chickenbuddy]

hmmmm

 

[Golden Phoenix]

I copy and pasted this from an article I found on a website:

When it comes to color vision, these farm fowl have bested humans in many ways, a new study finds.
The superior color vision comes down to a well-organized eye, structurally speaking, the researchers say.
They mapped five types of light receptors in the eyes of chickens. They discovered the receptors were laid out in interwoven mosaics that maximized the chicken's ability to see many colors in any given part of the retina, the light-sensing structure at the back of the eye.


"Based on this analysis, birds have clearly one-upped us in several ways in terms of color vision," said study author Dr. Joseph C. Corbo of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. "Color receptor organization in the chicken retina greatly exceeds that seen in most other retinas and certainly that in most mammalian retinas."
Birds likely owe this exceptional color vision to not having spent a period of evolutionary history in the dark, according to Corbo.
Night-vision relies on light-sensitive photoreceptors in the retina called rods, while daytime vision relies on receptors called cones.
During the age of the dinosaurs, most mammals became nocturnal for millions of years. Birds, now widely believed to be descendants of dinosaurs, never spent a similar period as nocturnal animals. As a result, birds have more types of cones than mammals.
"The human retina has cones sensitive to red, blue and green wavelengths," explained Corbo. "Avian retinas also have a cone that can detect violet wavelengths, including some ultraviolet, and a specialized receptor called a double cone that we believe helps them detect motion."
In addition, most avian cones have a specialized structure that Corbo compares to "cellular sunglasses," or a lens-like drop of oil within the cone that is pigmented to filter out all but a particular range of light. Researchers used these drops to map the location of the different types of cones on the chicken retina. While the different types of cones were evenly distributed throughout the retina, no two cones of the same type were located next to each other.

There's more to the article, but I think this is enough info. I hope it helps!

 

[Gomes Bantams]

Chickens, like other birds, see in color. Why do you think they go after all my vegetables!!!!

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Birds see color, an example:

when I deer hunt, I wear orange and the deer don't see it.

When I turkey hunt, I have to wear full body camouflage with no orange or even exposed skin.

Dogs see black and white, cats see some colors but built for night time hunting, ground hogs have bad vision and won't see you if you stand perfectly still.


Some fun facts.

Actually dogs see in a mostly blue spectrum, not black and white.

 

[galanie]

They most definately see color. Like the youtube link posted earlier, chickens are easily trained to peck a certain color square to get a treat. Doesn't matter what colors they are. They can pick out blue, yellow, orange, etc.

See the videos on Alex, the African Grey that Dr. Irene Pepperberg trained for study. She has another that she's working with now but they can not only tell the colors apart, but tell you what they are. She gives him an orange square and says "What Color?" and it replies "orange."

 

[thehomesteader]

It appears that chickens see color better than we do. Although I have believed this for years, science has verified it. For more info livescience.com has an article that posted in February 2010 citing research. It should be no surprise, as they can pick the ripest of berries, tomatoes, and every other garden treasure that you may have!!!!

 

[Q9]

That makes good sense.

Did you know that there eyeball is bigger than their brain?

Didn't know that for a fact, but it ain't hard to guess, that's for sure.

Amazing vision, but they have got to be the most ridiculously stupid critters on Earth.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

This was an old post, but a very interesting one! Most birds see more colors than humans can. In fact, compared to birds, humans have incredibly limited eye sight. Not only do birds have better resolution and magnification in their eyesight, but many birds also see ultraviolet as well. When looked at by a camera that can see UV, many birds' feather patterns take on a whole other life.

 

[Sultan obsessed]

Well, if you ask me, I would say that they can see colour, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to see stones in front of them and they wouldn't be able to tell if a surface was grass or sawdust.

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[lizmcd]

I think they diffently think they see color. My son was outside with the girls and his rooster. He was wearing a pair of floresent green basketball shorts and shirt. His rooster started chasing him all over the yard. He didnt bother me a bit. Next day my son was wearing something diffrent and he didnt chase him. Every time he wears the ugly green my son gets