Hawks Third Eye... Lid

Another "accident" from the zoo.

The Calgary Zoo has an enclosure of hawks that have been injured (whether being hit by a vehicle or flying into power lines) and survived. However, their injuries left them with permanent disabilities, such as being blind in one eye, or the complete loss of a wing. For those reasons, they cannot be released back into the wild.

The pedestrian path goes through the enclosure, so there are opportunities for portrait shots. In this one, what I was attempting to photograph was that tuft of down on its head. Apparently the hawk 'blinked' just as I released the shutter.

I looked it up online. Sure enough, birds have three eyelids - an upper and lower (just like us humans) and a third one which is called a nictitating membrane. It moves horizontally across their eye and serves the function of lubricating and cleaning the eyeball.


75-300mm lens @ 300mm, ISO 400, 1/640sec at f/7.1