Can birds smell, hear & see colors?

Their suitability to fly is undisputed, but what about the birds' sensory organs? Can birds smell? Do birds have ears? And how do birds see?

The art of flying puts birds on a special pedestal when it comes to physical ability. Only a few representatives from other animal groups share this gift. Songbirds also have lovely bird calls and light up their surroundings with their colorful splendor. So what other talents can they have? Can birds smell? How well can they hear and how do they perceive the world around them? We would like to answer these exciting questions in our information article.

Can birds smell?

In fact, the sense of smell in birds is rarely strong. Birds can smell, but usually not very well. The sense of smell is used, for example, when looking for a partner, recognizing prey and enemies or for Orientation used, but in all these areas he only plays one next to seeing and hearing subordinate role. An exception are vultures, which search for carrion - their favorite food - through the Use their sense of smell, which they have more than most bird species.

Can Birds Hear?

With the beautiful concerts songbirds give in the mornings, it would be a shame if they couldn't hear them for themselves. And that's why the answer applies here too: Yes, birds can hear. The bird calls are not there for our enjoyment, but are intended to send specific signals to conspecifics or other bird species. Male birds, for example, mark out a territory with their magnificent song and woo a mate in it.

Notice: For more information on bird song and the benefits of other bird calls, see our dedicated article on the subject "Why do birds chirp?".

On the other hand, it is somewhat more difficult to understand how Birds hear because unlike humans, dogs, and many other animals, they don't have obvious, protruding ears. Not even the long-eared owl, whose appearance has earned it the English name "Long-eared owl", does It's easy for us, because the protruding tufts of feathers on their heads are purely decorative and not for hearing suitable.

Therefore, to prove that birds have ears, you have to look very closely. These are located on the sides of the animals' heads and consist only of small openings that usually surrounded by a tuft of feathers and can hardly be recognized without a close examination of the animal are.

Can Birds See Colors?

The sense of sight is probably the most important sense of birds, because this ability is essential for orientation during flight, for searching for food or for finding a partner. birds of prey, such as kestrels or buzzards, small prey, such as field mice, can still be seen darting through the field from a distance of several hundred meters, which is difficult for a person even with binoculars.

And birds are also way ahead of us when it comes to color vision, because in addition to the classic color receptors for red, blue and green, such as we humans have them, the birds have another receptor for violet, with which they can even perceive UV light be able. This means that the world appears even more colorful to birds than it does to us. In addition to the four color receptors, birds also have another receptor that is specific to them Awareness of movement helps, allowing them to react quickly to danger or moving prey be able.

So birds can smell, hear, and even see color—but when do those senses ever rest? Where birds sleep and how they protect themselves from danger and the cold of winter in our special article.