Have you ever seen a woodpecker tongue? It's wild! Fortunately for us, Harry Collins, a Pennsylvania-based award-winning professional wildlife photographer, has captured some spectacular footage of a pileated woodpecker's tongue in action, and I have to say, it's mesmerizing. Its tongue can extend four inches beyond its bill, which helps it catch insects. But that's not all it's used for.
According to Hilltromper, pileated woodpeckers—the "jackhammers of the forest" who do "important construction work" for the other forest creatures—also use their tongues to help cushion their brains from all of those blows. They can peck up to 20 times per second, "banging their heads against tree trunks at the equivalent of 16 mph with each blow," so they need some extra protection.
American Bird Conservancy (ABC) explains that many species of woodpecker have this kind of tongue, not just the pileated. In a fascinating article about woodpecker tongues, ABC explains the anatomy of a woodpecker's tongue:
In both humans and birds, the tongue is supported by a bone called the hyoid. Your hyoid bone is a horseshoe-shaped structure under your jaw that gives the muscles in your tongue and the floor of your mouth something to attach to. It helps you breathe, swallow, and speak.
A woodpecker's hyoid bone, however, is vastly different. The center of the woodpecker's muscle-wrapped hyoid is in the nostrils, in the bird's upper beak. It splits into a V between the eyes, and its two arms wrap completely around the woodpecker's skull, passing over the top of it and around the back before meeting up again at the base of the lower beak.
When the muscles surrounding the hyoid contract, the tongue projects forward, through the length of the beak and out its end. But when those muscles relax, the woodpecker's tongue retracts along the length of the hyoid. Yep — a woodpecker's tongue is so long that it needs to be coiled around the back of its owner's skull.
American Bird Conservancy also provides more detail about how a woodpecker's tongue helps protect its brain:
Having its tongue wrapped around the back of its brain doesn't just give a woodpecker somewhere to store a long appendage; it also helps protect the bird's brain from injury during high-speed pecking.
When the muscles that surround the woodpecker hyoid bone contract, they don't just cause the woodpecker to stick out its tongue. That tensing-up action also helps hold the skull and spine snugly in place as the bird's beak collides with a tree, just like a seat belt keeps you from flying forward if someone slams on the brakes.
Read more about the woodpecker tongues here, and for more stunning nature photographer, check out Harry Collins' YouTube.
