Animals eyes come in different shapes, sizes, and colors.  Here are a bunch of weird facts about animal eyes that are sure to amaze and gross you out.

I have written some posts recently about birds eyes because birds fascinate me and we recently got a pet bird.  Well, that got me thinking about how different animals see the world.  I remember trying on one of those crazy glasses at a museum that let you see the world through an insects eyes.  Do you know what you call that kind of vision that insects have or how their eyes work?

5 Weird Facts About Animals Eyes

Birds Eyes Are Both Binocular And Monocular – Birds can focus on something straight in front of them and also on something directly to their side!  Even though birds have two eyes like people, they can use them very differently.  Birds are able to focus their eyes on something in front of them.  But, they can also use one eye to focus on something straight to their side.  This explains why it may be hard to tell if a bird is looking at you or not – we are used to animals looking at us straight ahead, not to the side.

Spiders Usually Have 8 Eyes – This one can get complicated because not all spiders have the same number of eyes.  In general spiders have 8 eyes, although some have 6 or 4.  Those eyes actually serve different functions for the spider and that depends on what kind of spider it is.  The two main kinds of spiders are web building and hunting.  Web building spiders have poor eyesight because they catch their food with their web. On the other hand, hunting spiders have good eyesight.

Insects Have Compound Eyes – This is different than mammals and other animals that have two or more ‘regular’ eyes or simple eyes.  The compound eye of insects is actually made up of  thousands of individual, tiny simple eyes.  All together they make up one compound eye.

Eye Lids – Animals have eye lids to keep their eyes clean and moist.  There are many animals that don’t have eyelids because they just don’t need them.  Fish don’t need them because they live in water and their eyes are always moist.  Insects also don’t have eyelids.  Some reptiles, including snakes and geckos, don’t have eyelids.  In fact, some geckos will lick their eyeball to clean it!

Do Dogs See In Black And White? – Growing up I was taught that dogs can only see in black and white.  But, recent research has proven that is not true.  Dogs can see some color, but not as much or as bright as people can see.