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Because many woodpeckers have pointed tongues, it was once assumed that they harpoon their prey. But what they actually do is more complex. Like a safe-cracker in a movie, birds like the Hairy Woodpecker use a killer combination of sensitivity and force.
First, as it scales a tree trunk, the Hairy Woodpecker taps lightly here and there. A telltale sign—just the right resonance—lets it know that there’s a tunnel underneath. And where there's a tunnel, there's most likely a tunneler: a wood-boring insect.
Next, the woodpecker chisels a small opening and slides its long tongue down the insect’s tunnel. The tongue tip likely features taste and touch organs that sense when it hits the bullseye.
But how do you get the prey out? Whether beetle, ant, or grub, it's most likely braced itself inside the tree by now. But the woodpecker’s tongue is more than up to the job. Its tip is coated with sticky saliva, has backward facing barbs, and can even wrap itself around the prey. So once the tongue has found its mark, there's no resisting its force.
And the prey is done for.
See photos of Hairy Woodpeckers and watch one forage for prey in slow motion at birdnote.org.
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Hairy Woodpecker drumming recorded by Oliver H Hewitt; pecking recorded by T G Sander. BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Dominic Black
Written by Bob Sundstrom
© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org June 2015 Narrator: Michael Stein