{"id":120011,"date":"2024-01-22T05:02:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T12:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=120011"},"modified":"2024-01-22T05:22:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T12:22:03","slug":"american-crow-nictitating-membrane-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/22\/american-crow-nictitating-membrane-images\/","title":{"rendered":"American Crow Nictitating Membrane Images"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, I’m sharing three portraits of an American Crow, two of which include the very pale, nearly icy-blue nictitating membrane that these crows have.<\/p>\n

\"WinterWinter American Crow portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

What is a nictitating membrane?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Birds have eyelids, like humans, that open and close in an up-and-down motion. Like humans, birds close their eyelids to sleep.<\/p>\n

Unlike humans, birds have a functioning third eyelid, which is called a nictitating membrane. The nictitating membrane clears debris, moisturizes, and protects the eyes of birds from external damage. In some species, such as crows and black-billed magpies, the nictitating membrane is used for displays and asserting dominance.<\/p>\n

In this American Crow portrait, the crow had their eye wide open. The iris is a dark brown in mature crows.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Crow nictitating membrane \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/320, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

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In this second crow portrait, the nictitating membrane was fully covering the eye of the bird.<\/p>\n

This American Crow was surrounded by other crows when I took this portrait, and it was icy cold that morning. The crow might have been communicating with the other crows in the area, or it may have been moisturizing its eye.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Crow nictitating membrane halfway over eye \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/320, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
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This last portrait shows the nictitating membrane about halfway over the crow’s eye. I wanted to include this image to show that the nictitating membrane slides across the eye from the front to the back in a side-to-side horizontal motion, not up and down like eyelids.<\/p>\n

In some bird species, this membrane is almost clear; in some, it is translucent.<\/p>\n

I wish I had been able to get one more portrait of this American Crow that showed her or him with their eyelids closed to complete the illustration of the outer eyelids and nictitating membrane<\/span><\/a> of this crow. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The crow didn’t blink.<\/p>\n

I was extremely thrilled to take portraits of this crow; having the images that included the nictitating membrane was a bonus.<\/p>\n

As a woman with especially dry eyes from having Sj\u00f6gren’s syndrome<\/span><\/a>, there are times I wish that I had nictitating membranes to keep my eyes moisturized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my American Crow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, I’m sharing three portraits of an American Crow, two of which include the very pale, nearly icy-blue nictitating membrane that these crows have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5967,27,1022,697,26],"tags":[4004,5969,4142,3194,5968,5970,1051,4064,14651,4094,2465,4046,14653,4050,5074,14652,4095,373],"class_list":["post-120011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-crows","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-crow","tag-close-up","tag-corvids","tag-corvus-brachyrhynchos","tag-crow","tag-crows","tag-ice","tag-inner-eyelid","tag-marsh","tag-nictitating-membrane","tag-portrait","tag-sjogrens-syndrome","tag-snow","tag-third-eyelid","tag-translucent-membrane","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/american-crow-nictitating-membrane-portrait-mia-mcpherson-2337.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-vdF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38144,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/11\/short-eared-owl-nictitating-membrane\/","url_meta":{"origin":120011,"position":0},"title":"Short-eared Owl Nictitating Membrane","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This image shows a Short-eared Owl nictitating membrane that is partially exposed. The dark line near the center of the eye is the edge of the nictitating membrane.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Northern Utah Short-eared Owl Male","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/short-eared-owl-thumbnail-mia-mcpherson-2237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/short-eared-owl-thumbnail-mia-mcpherson-2237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/short-eared-owl-thumbnail-mia-mcpherson-2237.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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Shore Of The Great Salt Lake","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Two years ago I could often find Northern Harriers hunting along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park and I photographed a series of images of this female Northern Harrier on February 16th of that year.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Northern Harrier with the Great Salt Lake in the background, Davis County, 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