Inquiring Minds...

Do birds have tongues, you ask? Why, yes, they do! They are not fleshy like ours, and they tend to be used for finding food rather than tasting it • Birds that drink nectar have long tube-shaped ones to take in liquids, like the beloved hummingbird we all love to see! • Some are spiny or ridged just like the roof of their mouth for holding on to fish, like a penguin or merganser • Cormorants have very small tongues allowing them to swallow fish whole. Gulp! • This Downy Woodpecker’s tongue can be up to 6 inches and slightly barbed and sticky at the end. Woodpeckers like extracting larvae from trees, so barbed and sticky would be most helpful. However, when their tongue is not in use it coils up like a spring in the back of their head. Who knew, woodpeckers have their own slinky! • A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing!