Yes, that is the “red eye in flash photo”, it is caused by the red is the retina reflecting.

Sorry to be all specific, but this is a science question. It isn’t the retina that shines brightly in a spotlight or headlights, but a structure just behind it called the Tapetum lucidum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum and humans don’t have it. The red eye you see is the flash just hitting the back of our retina. It’s called the fundus. So, it’s different and it’s why our human eyes don’t reflect that red when we are caught in headlights, like a racoon, or a deer.

@ScienceChick, thank you for the Wiki link. My question arose because it seemed to me that even at a distance birds and some insects would flee when I looked in their direction.

@Tropical_Willie, I wonder if “red eye” or another reflection of photons outside of our visual spectrum is detected by birds and some insects when one looks in their direction.

Birds and insects ‘see’ differently than we do, but it isn’t our eyes they are reacting to. They just see and react differently than we do because of their sensory organs and brains. Some birds can see in the ultra violet spectrum. Insects are probably reacting to motion rather than something in our eyes. Their brains react so quickly, our reactions are the equivalent of slow motion to them. Our eyes aren’t reflecting anything at them because they don’t have that reflector at the back of them.

A lot of birds, and other prey animals like rabbits, will bolt if they see that you are looking at them. It’s just survival instinct.