緑啄木鳥(あおげら／きつつき）The Japanese Green Woodpecker
Now this won't be anything new to watchers of QI, but there's something quite special about this little bird:
Photograph © Osamu Aoki
Aww, isn't he the cutest? Doesn't look particularly weird at all does he?
So what the hell is that!? That, ladies and gents, is a typical woodpecker tongue- a barbed grub-spearing harpoon and not only is it spiky, it's often sticky as well. Woodpecker saliva often has more in common with glue than spit. Just the thing for picking up ants.
And it gets weirder still. Some woodpecker species have sensory organs on the tips of their tongues that help them locate tasty morsels hidden deep within the wood they drill. Dabbling around with it, they can hear the little scritchy noises bugs make as they feast on the insides of the tree. That's right, hear. To all intents and purposes, woodpeckers have a third ear on the tip of their tongue.
But the real kicker is where the root of the tongue is located. Have a guess. Somewhere down the gullet? Nope. Ok, behind the eyes? Getting closer... In the forehead above the brain arching off in a loop that goes through it's own nasal cavity and both sides of it's skull simultaneously? Ooh, BINGO!
Point 2 is the nasal cavity, just above which you can see the root of the tongue. At Point 1 the tongue is actually split into two, wrapping around both the left and the right hand sides of the cranium. The whole thing can equal up to 2/3rds of the bird's total body length.
Although, to be fair, it will never be as weird as a pangolin who keeps his tongue attached to his pelvis and creates saliva in his chest.
11 species of Japanese Woodpecker:
Green Woodpecker (aka Wavy Bellied)
Gray-headed Woodpecker
Black Woodpecker
White-bellied Black Woodpecker
Wryneck
White-backed Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Pryer's Woodpecker
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Three-toed Woodpecker
Woodpeckers