Fearsome Night Hunters

Diurnal raptors (that is, raptors who are active during the day) can spot prey like a rabbit on the move from up to three miles away.

Raptors that hunt at night, like some owls, have eyesight on a par with humans in terms of long-distance vision.

The retina of the human eye contains two photoreceptors called 'rods' and 'cones'. Cones are sensitive to color, rods are sensitive to light.

The difference between their eyesight and human vision is that they have far fewer cones in their eyes than we humans do, which means they can only see primary colours and not the subtle variations that we can see. However, they have far more rods in their retinas, giving them extreme sensitivity to light. That is what makes them fearsome night hunters.