The Bird Whose Tongue Wraps All The Way Around Its Skull
A woodpecker's tongue wraps around the inside of its own skull.
Which one is REALLY true about the Woodpecker?
The short version
A woodpecker drills about 12,000 times a day. Its tongue anchors around the back of the skull and tightens like a seatbelt to cushion the brain.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Woodpecker has a tongue whose support bones run back under the jaw and wrap all the way around the back of its skull.
- ✓The Woodpecker hammers its beak into solid wood about twenty times a second.
- ✓The Woodpecker drills around twelve thousand times a day without turning its brain to pulp.
- ✓The Woodpecker anchors that long tongue bone, called the hyoid, over the top of its head and down near its nostril.
- ✓The Woodpecker has a barbed, sticky tongue tip that spears grubs out of tunnels it cannot even see into.
You could line up about 4 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
A woodpecker's tongue is so long that it wraps all the way around the inside of its own skull. A woodpecker hammers its beak into solid wood about twenty times a second, and it does that around twelve thousand times a day. That should turn its brain to pulp. Part of the reason it does not is the tongue. It starts in the beak, but the bone and muscle supporting it, called the hyoid, run back under the jaw, split into two straps, wrap up around the back of the skull, over the top of the head, and anchor near the nostril. When the bird drills, that band tightens like a seatbelt and cushions the braincase. The tongue is also barbed and sticky, so it can spear grubs out of tunnels it cannot even see. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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“The Woodpecker has a tongue whose support bones run back under the jaw and wrap all the way around the back of its skull.”
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“The Woodpecker hammers its beak into solid wood about twenty times a second.”