Now… let’s talk about this bird’s name. I’ve always called them PIE-lee-ated woodpeckers. But say that in the wrong crowd and you might summon a grammar goblin who screeches, “It’s PILL-ee-ated!” ...

The tongue also helps the woodpecker avoid injury when chiseling at objects. The hyoid contracts and tenses at each bash of the beak, holding the skull and spine in place. We know woodpeckers ...

A woodpecker’s tongue is perhaps its greatest asset ... The diversity of this muscle demonstrates just how efficient woodpeckers are at hunting. After pecking at a tree with their strong ...

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 ...

Woodpeckers endure incredible head impacts without injury, thanks to a unique adaptation. Their extraordinarily long tongue wraps around the skull, acting as a biological shock absorber.

“While filming the woodpeckers in zoos ... the Q collar was developed around 2016 to mimic how the woodpecker's long tongue can wrap around the head and pinch the jugular vein.

Like all woodpeckers, its diet is largely made up ... and it eagerly flicks its long, sticky tongue inside to pull out balls of squirming insects. "They're so enthusiastic about finding an ant ...

The pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is such a strikingly large bird that it can only be confused with the ivory-billed woodpecker which is debated by many as to whether it is actually ...

The woodpeckers then use their long tongues to reach in and grab bugs. The woodpecker's tongue is so long that it is actually wrapped around the brain when not in use, and can quickly be extended ...

Woodpeckers are strange and striking creatures, and these three representatives are stranger still. One digs wells for sap, one reaches a snaking tongue into the earth like an anteater with wings ...