Honeybees have five eyes.

The two large eyes are called compound eyes. Each one is made of about 6,900 tiny lenses. These lenses help bees see ultraviolet light. This light shows patterns on flowers that humans cannot see. These patterns lead the bee to nectar.The three small eyes on top are called ocelli. They do not see shapes like the large eyes do. Instead, they detect the direction and brightness of light. This helps the bee know which way is up and where the sun is located.Bees can find the sun even on cloudy days. They do this by sensing polarized light. Scientist Karl von Frisch won a Nobel Prize in 1973 for studying how bees use the sun to navigate. He found that bees use the sun's position to tell other bees where to find food.Bees process images much faster than humans. Humans see 24 frames per second as smooth motion. A bee can see up to 300 separate flashes of light every second. This fast vision helps them avoid hitting objects while flying at 24 kilometers per hour.