Animals that see in slow motion

Flies, dragonflies and some birds see the world in slow motion. Their eyes take in fast movement so quickly that your swatting hand looks lazy to them. Try fly eyes on your photo and see the blur disappear.

Red tulips under a blue sky, as you see them.

Red tulips under a blue sky as a fruit fly sees them (simulation): colours remapped to its 7 receptor classes, and fine detail softened.

Try it on your photo

A simulation made from published eye studies. Not what the animal feels.

The same photo through their eyes

The same tulips as a fruit fly sees them.

Fruit fly7 kinds of colour

The same tulips as a housefly sees them.

Housefly5 kinds of colour

Blowfly5 kinds of colour

The slow-motion test

Pick an animal, press Play and watch the same move through your eyes and through theirs. Then try to swat it before it sees you coming.

Fast things look about 1.4 times slower to a housefly than to you.

You

Housefly

Start
Halfway
End

Dragonfly (Sympetrum flaveolum)
Giant African snail
Dog
Cat
Western honey bee
Housefly

Play today's Guess the Eye: can you tell these eyes apart?

Animals with these eyes

Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster)
Housefly
Blowfly (Calliphora vicina)
American cockroach
Tsetse fly (Glossina pallidipes)
Yellow fever mosquito
Blowfly (Calliphora collini)
Common green bottle fly
Fruit fly (Drosophila hydei)
Tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans)

The science behind it