We present initial results from a field survey for extremely red objects ( EROs , defined here as ( \R - K ^ { \prime } ) \geq 6 ^ { m } ) covering 154 square arcminutes of sky , from the first of 7 deep , wide-field K ^ { \prime } images obtained as part of the Calar Alto Deep Imaging Survey ( CADIS ) .
The 5 \sigma point source detection limits are K ^ { \prime } = 20 \fm 5 and \R = 25 \fm 0 , while extended-source limits are up to 0 \fm 50–0 \fm 75 brighter .
We identify a total of 8 bright EROs with K ^ { \prime } \leq 19 \fm 0 .
Six of these bright EROs are resolved and are likely to be galaxies , while the remaining 2 are unresolved , with colors consistent with their being low-mass Galactic stars .
We derive a surface density for the 6 bright , extragalactic EROs of 0.039 \pm 0.016 arcmin ^ { -2 } , higher by a factor of 4 than previous values .
We estimate that the volume density of bright EROs to be as high as that of nearby Seyfert galaxies .