Originally Posted by
Randy Stout
I think we have two separate issues here. The pupil distortion pointing towards 3:00 would be consistent with a coloboma in a human, a developmental defect in the iris often associated with underlying retinal colobomas. If the latter is present, the vision may be profoundly effected. If the vision is impaired, you would think this would be powerfully selected against genetically.
The black pigment or smudging sounds like a sexual dimorphism, which isn't known in humans to the best of my knowledge. Pigment flakes in the iris are comment in people, and some can even have malignant potential, but I don't know the significance in birds.
Cheers
Randy