I WAS asked the other day if ducks can see in the dark. Initially, I thought it was quackers, but I did some research on it.

In a nutshell, birds can see a bit better in the dark than we can. Their eyes can see in the ultraviolet spectrum which does allow them to see better in the dusk and dawn periods. This is because the first and last of the sun's rays as it crosses the horizon are made up of UV light.

Birds also process rapid movements better than humans which, for example, allows them to chase prey rapidly through a forest without hitting tree branches.

They are also better at detecting slow movement, like the transit of the sun across the sky, which we can’t detect, and which helps them to navigate.

Water birds that look for prey though the air-water interface have red oil droplets in the cones of their eyes that improves contrast and sharpens distance vision.

The really intriguing bit is the fact that there are night vision birds that are totally adapted to sight in low vision.

Owls are the kings of the roost here and have very big eyes relative to their body size - they can make up as much as five percent of their bodyweight. That might not sound much, but our eyes make up 0.0003 percent of our body mass.

Like us, they have rods (detecting light and movement) and cones (detecting colour). They have more rods than we do and also a layer behind the retina that captures any light that passes through the retina. Some owls’ eyes are 100 times more sensitive to low light than ours.

So, whilst ducks can’t see in the dark per se, they have better vision than us.

What is intriguing is that many migratory birds prefer to fly at night rather than during the day because they can see the stars to navigate, there tends to be less turbulence - to allow a better course to be maintained - and it's cooler, so less moisture is lost. They’re pretty smart but they have been doing it for millions of years.