How does an Indian peafowl see the world?

The Indian peafowl is a violet-sensitive tetrachromat. Microspectrophotometry found four single-cone pigments, while oil droplets and the ocular media reshape their effective sensitivities; retinal anatomy gives a calculated lateral maximum of 20.6 cycles per degree, not a behavioural threshold. Four single-cone classes and coloured oil droplets produce predicted effective sensitivity peaks at 432, 477, 537 and 605 nm. This is a violet-sensitive, not ultraviolet-sensitive, system.

Four single-cone classes and coloured oil droplets produce predicted effective sensitivity peaks at 432, 477, 537 and 605 nm. This is a violet-sensitive, not ultraviolet-sensitive, system. Violet-sensitive tetrachromat (4 single cones) + double cones + oil droplets

A retinal ganglion-cell estimate gives 20.6 cycles per degree in the lateral field. Hart did not measure whole-head visual-field coverage, so this page deliberately assigns no degree value.

Its eyes resolve about 20.6 cycles per degree against your 60, so a face has to be roughly 3 times closer for it to pick out the detail you do. Your outline and your movement read clearly; your expression does not.

One rod class was measured in dark-adapted retinas from adult females, but no behavioural night threshold was established.

Four visible-light cone classes filtered by coloured oil droplets. Central retinal area peaks at 35,609 ganglion cells/mm². Freely moving birds combine eye and head movements; whole-head field and CFF remain unquantified. A telemetric eye-tracker showed that freely moving peafowl combine eye and head movements during gaze shifts and have a near-absence of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. That study measured gaze mechanics, not a whole-head field of view.

Humans use three cone classes; peafowl use four visible-light classes and coloured oil droplets. An RGB display can emphasize visible violet and colour separation, but it cannot create the extra colour dimension or show what the bird subjectively experiences.