A mallard duck’s visual field is completely panoramic, with no blind spot either above or behind it. When sitting on the surface of a lake, a mallard can see the entire sky without moving. When flying, it sees the world simultaneously moving toward it and away from it. We use the phrase “bird’s-eye view” to mean any vista seen from on high. But a bird’s view is not just an elevated version of a human one. “The human visual world is in front and humans move into it,” Martin once wrote. But “the avian world is around and birds move through it.”
