Young Red-tailed Hawks just out of the nest - like this one - have light blue eyes. They will turn yellow during his/her first year, and then to dark brown the following year.
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If you grow spicebush or sassafras and you see what looks like a tiny green snake draped over a leaf, look closer. It's a caterpillar wearing a disguise.
The spicebush swallowtail caterpillar spends its early days looking like bird droppings, which is its own kind of genius. As it grows into its final stage, it shifts strategy entirely. The thorax swells. Two enormous false eyespots appear, tear-shaped pupils and all, positioned to suggest the head of a snake or possibly a tree frog, researchers still debate which.
The caterpillar spends its days rolled inside a leaf held shut with silk, hiding the eyespots. When something disturbs it, it rears up, reveals the false eyes, and if that doesn't work, deploys the osmeterium, a forked orange appendage behind its head that extends like a tongue and releases a smell like rancid butter.
Studies have found the tear-shaped pupil creates the illusion of a directed gaze, as if the eyes are tracking the predator. The caterpillar is not just pretending to have eyes. It's pretending to have eyes that are watching you.
If you find one, the spicebush or sassafras it's eating is the only plant it can eat. Leave them both alone and in a few weeks you'll have one of the most beautiful butterflies in the eastern US instead.