We're now going to look at the ways in which chickens get information about their environment, which then governs their behavior. The parts of the brain that control particular senses are more developed where those senses are acute. For example, sight and vision in night predators, such as owls, is a keen sense in those birds, so this part of the brain is well-developed. In chickens, vision and sight are also well-developed. Chickens have panoramic vision of about 300 degrees and binocular vision, which is where the visual input from both eyes overlaps, of about 26 degrees. This means that there is only a small area behind them where they cannot see, which is a very valuable skill if you need to worry about predators sneaking up on you. Chickens and other birds can also see colors as well as in shades of gray, such as in dim light. Indeed, birds have, at a minimum, double the sensitive visual cells on the back of the retina compared to humans. Chickens seem better at distinguishing bright colors such as red and orange rather than more muted colors. This may be an evolutionary adaptation to forest dwelling in their ancestors. Because these bright colors would be easiest to see against a green background as with a forest. Chickens also have a wider sensitivity to light spectrum than people. You and I can see in what's known as the visible light spectrum, which is about 400 to 700 nanometers wavelengths of energy. But chickens can also see below 400 nanometers in what's known as the ultraviolet spectrum. So what might look like a plain white cockerel to you and I might be patterned to other chickens and can affect their behavior. For example, this might attracts pecking from other birds. Vision is very important in chickens because they use it to communicate a great deal of information. For example, body postures and displays are used to signal both threats and submissions. All those fancy feathers that you see on the males are for a good reason, to display to other males as challengers and to females as mates, their superior ability to dedicate resources to growing a fancy plumage. So they either say, "don't mess with me, I'm really fit and healthy". Or they say, "I'd make a great mate". Comb size and comb color in chickens also impart information about sexual maturity, social status, and fitness to other birds. Vision is also important in depth perception, for example, for jumping to perches, for food recognition and grasping, for recognizing friends and enemies, to identify social signals, and thus maintain a stable hierarchy, in other words, the pecking order, and to identify suitable foraging, nesting, dust bathing and roosting sites.