Grey Heron's Eye Movement Question (1 Viewer)

Hi all

Photographed this young Grey Heron fishing on the canal - no, he didn't use a rod - and noticed that I captured an odd movement of his eyes.

At first I thought it was the reflection of the fish in the Heron's eye but in the second photo the fish is in the same position but there is no 'reflection'.

So is the Heron's eye similar to, but not exactly like, that of a Chameleon?

I have never noticed this before - and doing a search for Heron's eye movement brought up lots of confusing web pages regarding their vision with diagrams and graphs, but couldn't find something that would give me a simple answer.

Any help appreciated thanks

Hi Ritchie

This is the nictating membrane, which you can read more about in the Opus Dictionary here.

It shows it very nicely too in these pictures.... very well done lad, a good spot.

delia todd said:

Hi Ritchie

This is the nictating membrane, which you can read more about in the Opus Dictionary here.

It shows it very nicely too in these pictures.... very well done lad, a good spot.

Click to expand...

Ah, thanks Delia.

I have actually heard about this and watched wildlife programmes showing this 'third eyelid' but didn't match that up with this Heron's. I think because it seems like the Heron's eye is moving slightly inward and at an angle - but silly me it's just an illusion! I thought it was odd

Another thing learnt.

thank you :t:

You're welcome Ritchie.

Aren't birds clever!

Grey Herons are called Haigries on Shetland and that is derived from Norse languages, Shetland having belonged to Norway for a long time. We call all Grey Herons Haigrie, not a Haigrie, but Haigrie, as if it was a proper name. We think its a friendly sounding name that suits the contemplative appearance of our big Heron and even has a kind of Tolkienesque flavour.

Lee