In honor of tongues out Tuesday, I wanted to show everyone one of the most interesting tongues in nature. Woodpeckers are well known for having very long and very sensitive tongues, which they use to hunt their insect prey in cracks, crevices, and holes in trees and tree bark. Their tongues are actually so long that to fit them in their mouths, they have to roll them up inside their frontal sinuses. By probing into spaces that they can’t see with their tongues, they feel the insects and sometimes can capture them with those dexterous tongues. This young red bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) had just finished searching under the bark of an old oak tree and still had her tongue partially stuck out. If you can imagine it, the total length is double or more from what you can see here.