Budgie Vision (2)

Light perception

Budgies are able to see ultraviolet light, which is involved in courtship. The plumage patterns in ultraviolet are invisible to the human eye, unless you place your budgie under a UV lamp.

Image © Mark Neville

A UV receptor also may give wild budgerigars an advantage in foraging food. Although they feed mainly on grass seeds, they also eat fruit. The waxy surfaces of many small fruits and berries reflect UV light that might advertise their presence. A quick and easy meal for a budgie!

Flicker tresholds

Budgies can resolve rapid movement much better than humans, for whom flickering at a rate greater than 50 Hz appears as continuous movement. Thus, humans are unable to distinguish individual flashes of a fluorescent light bulb oscillating at 60 Hz, but no more than that. Budgies have flicker tresholds of more than a 100 Hz!

Image © volnistij-gorod.ru

Here's another breathtaking fact: budgies are able to detect slow moving objects. The movement of the sun and the constellations across the sky is imperceptible to humans. We are only capable of saying that the sun has gone a bit down or up, compared to half an hour or an hour ago. Budgerigars can actually detect this movement while it is happening! This amazing ability allows budgies to properly orient themselves in the wild.