Definition: Binocular Disparity

Noun.

(1) In psychology, when a person is viewing an object, the difference in the images created in the left and right eyes. The brain uses information about the disparity in determining the distance of the object from the viewer.

(2) In birding, the difference between the cost of one's binoculars and the number of bird species one can identify without consulting a field guide or other resources.

See also: binocular despairity. The negative emotion created when a birder discovers he or she has insufficiently powerful optics immediately available to identify a given bird. This despairity most commonly occurs in situations in which the birder has no binoculars at all or is carrying binoculars when a spotting scope is required to see a bird at a far distance.