Vicious Roosters

[MaryN]

The reasons chickens look sideways at you is because their vision "bifocal", and the fovea in the eyes (actually, they have 2)give it a focal range of about 2 to 4 feet. The close vision fovea is sideways in the eye, so the chicken will bob its head and tilt sideways to geta bead on you. They don't actually recognise flockmates until they are within about 2 feet. This also explains why chickens spook suddenly - they can't really deal with long distance.