Night-time poses exacting problems for vision, resolution inevitably falls and colour vision is not possible as light levels decrease to those of natural night time. Furthermore, light levels are highly variable depending upon whether there is moonlight, and night length changes dramatically in the annual cycle according to latitude. Few birds exploit the resources available at night. Those that do rely upon information received from vision complemented by information from other senses (hearing, olfaction, and touch), and upon highly specialized and restricted behaviours. However, many birds occasionally exploit night-time, e.g. during migration, arriving and departing from nests, and occasional night feeding. Some seabirds dive to such depths that they experience night-time light levels when foraging. Truly nocturnal species such as owls, kiwi, and oilbirds are highly sedentary, and this is essential to allow them to interpret correctly the partial information that is available to them.
The annual cycle of energy input, modal excitation and physical plus biogenic turbulent dissipation in a temperate lake
