Oculomotor strategy of an avian ground forager: tilted and weakly yoked eye saccades

Abstract

Many bird species are capable of large saccadic eye movements that can result in substantial shifts in gaze direction and complex changes to their visual field orientation. In the absence of visual stimuli, birds make spontaneous saccades that follow an endogenous oculomotor strategy. We used new eye tracking technology specialized for small birds to study the oculomotor behavior of an open-habitat, ground foraging songbird, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). We found that starlings primarily move their eyes along a tilted axis 13.46° downwards anteriorly and upwards posteriorly, which differs from the axis parallel to the horizon employed by other species. This tilted axis could enhance foraging and anti-predator strategies while starlings are head-down looking for food, allowing them to direct vision between the open mandibles to visually inspect food items and above and behind the head to scan areas where predators are more likely to attack. We also found that starlings have neither fully conjugate saccades (e.g., humans) nor independent saccades (e.g., chameleons). Rather, they exhibit weakly yoked saccades where the left and right eyes move at the same time but not the same magnitude. Functionally, weakly yoked saccades may be similar to independent saccades in that they allow the two eyes to concomitantly perform different tasks. The differences between the oculomotor strategies of studied species suggest eye movements play variable but important roles across bird species with different ecological niches.