Over the last couple of weeks we have seen many woodpeckers of different kinds on the feeders - there are two downy woodpeckers sitting there as I write and they are completely still so I think there must be something large around. We had not seen so many since the snow - they are feeding very enthusiastically and fighting over food - we wondered whether they are perhaps taking suet back to nestlings in the trees.
The Northern Flicker (above, in a photo borrowed from the web) a close relation of the woodpecker family is also feeding frequently and with real vigour. Watching one on the feeder the other day I realised that he was deploying a long slender tongue which was protruded several inches further than his beak. I had never noticed this before.
I did not manage to get a photo but the one above shows it quite clearly. It has a kind of pointed spike on the end which is apparently used to get insects and grubs out of holes. To complete the horrid mental image you now have, it retracts into a spiral inside the bird's skull when not in use!!
Initially I thought that I had never seen a bird's tongue before but on reflection birds such as parrots and our local cardinals definitely use their tongues to help with cracking and holding the sunflower seed to get the husks off and chickens have tongues too I am sure..
(Yes you are right, slow news day...)
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