Visual acuity of budgerigars for moving targets
(2021) In Biology Open 10(9).- Abstract
For a bird, it is often vital to visually detect food items, predators, or individuals from the same flock, i.e. moving stimuli of various shapes. Yet, behavioural tests of visual spatial acuity traditionally use stationary gratings as stimuli. We have behaviourally tested the ability of budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) to detect a black circular target, moving semi-randomly at 1.69 degrees s−1 against a brighter background. We found a detection threshold of 0.107±0.007 degrees of the visual field for a target size corresponding to a resolution of a grating with a spatial frequency of 4.68 cycles degree−1. This detection threshold is lower than the resolution limit for gratings but similar to the threshold for... (More)
For a bird, it is often vital to visually detect food items, predators, or individuals from the same flock, i.e. moving stimuli of various shapes. Yet, behavioural tests of visual spatial acuity traditionally use stationary gratings as stimuli. We have behaviourally tested the ability of budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) to detect a black circular target, moving semi-randomly at 1.69 degrees s−1 against a brighter background. We found a detection threshold of 0.107±0.007 degrees of the visual field for a target size corresponding to a resolution of a grating with a spatial frequency of 4.68 cycles degree−1. This detection threshold is lower than the resolution limit for gratings but similar to the threshold for stationary single objects of the same shape. We conclude that the target acuity of budgerigars for moving single targets, just as for stationary single targets, is lower than their acuity for gratings.
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- author
- Chaib, Sandra LU ; Mussoi, Juliane Gaviraghi ; Lind, Olle LU and Kelber, Almut LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-09
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Bird vision, Dynamic acuity, Object detection, Target detection, Visual resolution
- in
- Biology Open
- volume
- 10
- issue
- 9
- article number
- bio058796
- publisher
- The Company of Biologists Ltd
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:34382651
- scopus:85115268447
- ISSN
- 2046-6390
- DOI
- 10.1242/bio.058796
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f8260175-89af-46dc-92a7-aada8883f648
- date added to LUP
- 2021-09-28 21:02:25
- date last changed
- 2024-07-13 19:26:21
@article{f8260175-89af-46dc-92a7-aada8883f648,
abstract = {{<p>For a bird, it is often vital to visually detect food items, predators, or individuals from the same flock, i.e. moving stimuli of various shapes. Yet, behavioural tests of visual spatial acuity traditionally use stationary gratings as stimuli. We have behaviourally tested the ability of budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) to detect a black circular target, moving semi-randomly at 1.69 degrees s<sup>−1</sup> against a brighter background. We found a detection threshold of 0.107±0.007 degrees of the visual field for a target size corresponding to a resolution of a grating with a spatial frequency of 4.68 cycles degree<sup>−1</sup>. This detection threshold is lower than the resolution limit for gratings but similar to the threshold for stationary single objects of the same shape. We conclude that the target acuity of budgerigars for moving single targets, just as for stationary single targets, is lower than their acuity for gratings.</p>}},
author = {{Chaib, Sandra and Mussoi, Juliane Gaviraghi and Lind, Olle and Kelber, Almut}},
issn = {{2046-6390}},
keywords = {{Bird vision; Dynamic acuity; Object detection; Target detection; Visual resolution}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{9}},
publisher = {{The Company of Biologists Ltd}},
series = {{Biology Open}},
title = {{Visual acuity of budgerigars for moving targets}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.058796}},
doi = {{10.1242/bio.058796}},
volume = {{10}},
year = {{2021}},
}