We are often visited at our home in south west Sydney by sulphur crested cockatoo's and I have noticed that some of them have only one (1) eye! Can anyone out there explain why this occurs and how they survive with this problem? As they have been coming occasionaly for years now it appears that having only one eye does'nt seem to hinder their survival.
I have never seen a wild bird with one eye, not least several of them with one eye. Must be a genetic deformity.
Is there a second eye there at all, or just nothing there?
One seems to have a little black dot........sort of a deformed eye maybe? and the other one has nothing at all....if you get close enough you can see what looks like a membrane at the base of the eye hole, like the eye ball has been removed.
I don't know how many chicks cockatoos have but I thought one exlanation might be chicks fighting in the nest and pecking at the eye with those powerfull beaks!
I thought the same thing that birds needed two eye's to survive but as I said the "optically challenged" ones seem to survive quite okay , as they can fly and land just as well as the normal ones with both eyes...I find it most perplexing and would love to know the real reason that this happens
I have no explanation, someone else may be able to chime in. I cant find any info on this.
Yes the nest thing could be a possibility but it is strange that you are seeing several but no one else has reported seeing them elsewhere, which makes me think its genetic!
Birds as prey species have eyes on either side of the head which is the trait of all prey species, plus they also need it for depth perception for flying and landing on perches. Just goes to show how they can become accustomed to a deformity like that.
magpie...thank you for your relpies and input.....much appreciated
John......interesting point and it makes sense....thanks for your input
Regards
Ron
John, thank you for your input, as I said... what you say (being some form of trauma) makes sense as one bird looks like it's eye has been removed and the other has what looks like some form of defect such as mentioned by magpie it could be a genetic thing.
I am still amazed that they can function with only one eye....everytime I see them (we sometimes give them a jatz bickky) it blows me away!
Regards
Ron