Woodpecker Tongues: All You Need To Know

Birds have developed a plethora of creative strategies to survive on Earth, and the Woodpeckers are one species that has adapted to an extremely high degree. The tongue of the woodpecker is a highly specialized and unusual organ, although being less noticeable than some of its other distinguishing traits.

We’ll examine the anatomy and function of the woodpecker tongue in this post. Discover more about one of the animal kingdom’s most specialized languages by reading along!

The Woodpecker’s Tongue’s Anatomy

The length of a woodpecker’s tongue may reach up to one-third of its body length! Their tongues have developed to become barbed and covered with saliva, enabling them to spear, hook, or capture insects in their saliva before removing them from subterranean tunnels or wood.

The solution to the question of where Woodpeckers keep their lengthy tongues is very fascinating. The hyoid apparatus, a uniquely specialized device seen on these birds, encircles the back of their skull from the tip of their bill to the mouth’s aperture.

The tongue is connected to the hyoid apparatus, which uses the hyoid bone and muscles to regulate tongue movement. Woodpeckers exert force on their bill and associated tongue by pushing the hyoid apparatus toward the bill and out of their mouth using the muscles around their skull.

A Woodpecker with a red beak. The length of a woodpecker’s tongue may reach up to one-third of its body length!

The Reason behind the Design

Why then do woodpeckers have tongues that are so lengthy and distinct? Their feeding strategy holds the key to the solution.

Eating insects that reside within wood, such as beetle larvae and ants, is a specialty of many woodpeckers. They use their bills to smash down chambers, tunnels, and insect colonies. Their lengthy tongues are then inserted to retrieve their prey.

Making a livelihood by pecking at hard surfaces hundreds of times a day is fairly extreme. We’re still not quite sure how woodpeckers prevent headaches, but their tongue wraps around their skull and could possibly provide some support against stress!

A Woodpecker with Spots. A lot of woodpeckers are experts in consuming wood-dwelling insects, such as ants and beetle larvae.

In contrast to Other Birds

To fit their bills and eating habits, birds have a vast range of sizes and forms for their tongues. While some have a similar appearance to ours, others are very specialized.

Conical papillae, which are spiky projections on goose tongues, aid in the removal of plant material. Although their tongues are also frightening, penguins utilize their bristles to grasp slick food before eating it. There are other birds with very long tongues than woodpeckers. Hummingbird feeders and flowers provide nectar, which the birds obtain with their elongated tongues.

To discover more about the many tongue kinds seen in birds, check out this interesting resource.

Aspects of Evolution

Given the peculiarity of woodpecker tongues, it may be difficult to imagine how they might have originated in the first place. Of course, evolution is a very slow, incremental process rather than something that happens all at once.

Theoretically, larger tongues would have allowed early woodpeckers to have easier access to food, increasing their chances of surviving, feeding their young, and dispersing their “longer-tongued” genes to the next generation. Woodpeckers may have inherited a number of distinctive characteristics via this kind of natural selection, such as their stiff tail feathers and zygodactyl feet.

The Function of Saliva

Saliva is secreted by bird tongues for a variety of purposes, including as aiding in swallowing, aiding in digesting, and even assisting in nest construction. Saliva serves another useful use for woodpeckers. These birds pull insects and their larvae from their tunnels with the aid of sticky saliva. For ant-eating species like Northern Flickers and Green Woodpeckers, this is particularly crucial.

Using Woodpeckers

Although we are aware that woodpeckers have developed some fairly amazing adaptations to help them grab food, how does it all work together? Now let’s examine the tongue usage of woodpeckers.

The biology of the more than 200 species of woodpeckers that are now recognized varies somewhat. Nonetheless, the common woodpecker searches for evidence of insects and their larvae dwelling inside dead branches, wood, and beneath bark.

When pursuing their target, woodpeckers may peck at a specific area at up to 15 mph (25 km/h) and deliver up to 20 strikes per second. These birds may hit at wood more than ten thousand times a day, yet the forces involved would kill or seriously hurt a person!

The Woodpecker may enter its bill, stretch its tongue to spear or hook its food, and then draw its meal back to be ingested after it has created a hole big enough. A burrow in the woods housing a juicy carpenter bee larva, or an ant colony, are typical target.

Greenery and the Contemporary Woodpecker

In many parts of the globe, including the United States and Britain, woodpeckers are frequent birds of prey. Many species are under growing strain due to habitat loss and other environmental issues in the contemporary world, even if they have developed unique adaptations.

Unfortunately, some species—like the well-known Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the American South—have already gone extinct. We can better understand woodpecker requirements and take action to safeguard the most vulnerable species by researching the anatomy, ecology, and behavior of these birds.

One species of woodpecker with a very long tongue is the Northern Flicker.

Interesting Trivia and Facts

The bills and tongues of woodpeckers are not the only tools they employ to harvest food from trees. Food is infamously hidden by Acorn Woodpeckers in tiny holes bored into tree limbs.
One species of woodpecker with a very long tongue is the Northern Flicker. Rather than in wood, these birds use subterranean nests to capture their ant prey.
Even in the absence of food, woodpeckers continue to peck at wood. In order to deposit their eggs, these birds carve out their own nest holes. They also drum in the spring to attract attention from their neighbors.
There are other creatures with very long tongues for capturing ants besides woodpeckers. The tongue of the giant anteater, an animal found in South America, is two feet long!

How long tongue does a woodpecker have?

The length of a woodpecker’s tongue varies by species. Tongues of large species, such as the Pileated Woodpecker, may grow up to 5 inches long!

Do woodpecker species all have the same pattern on their tongues?

Depending on their diet and foraging habits, woodpeckers may have tongues that vary in length and form. For example, sapsuckers don’t need lengthy tongues since they consume sap that accumulates on the surface of tree trunks. Flickers’ sticky saliva functions similarly to the glue on a fly trap, and they need very long tongues to capture ants in their subterranean nests.

Do woodpeckers have tongues full of taste buds?

Woodpeckers are among the many birds whose tongues are equipped with taste buds. It’s interesting that these birds can identify sweet flavors. According to German research conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, woodpeckers are capable of tasting amino acids and carbohydrates.

Final Thoughts

Who knew that something as unassuming as the tongue of a woodpecker could be so fascinating? It only serves to highlight how much of the natural world we have to be grateful for and the reasons each of us has a responsibility to protect life as it exists on Earth.

When you hear the woodpecker hammering away again, stop and think about the amazing adaptations these birds have developed to live!