During my nature photography walk, I saw some olive-backed sunbirds sucking the nectar. Then, a thin tube/straw came out from sunbird bill. My first thought was : Wow! The bill can be extended with a soft part of bill or a straw that be pull out and in. Oh, that’s how this sunbird can suck up the nectar.
Do birds have tongue? What is that straw?
That’s the question that I had after I saw that moment.
Driven by my curiosity, I started to research about this and actually, all birds have tongue.
Sunbirds have long, tubular tongues ( Nectarine tongue ), with 2-3 branches at the tip to help them suck up the nectar.
Here some information that I get from other resource.
Bird Tongue Morphology
- A bird uses its tongue to help them with food intake, swallowing and communicating with other birds.
- A birds tongue is part of the “lingual apparatus” and is located in the floor of the lower beak.
- The tongues’ extrinsic muscles anchor the tongue and allow it to change position.
- Bird tongues have tactile receptors that help it to identify and position food before swallowing.
- The tongue is made up of bones and cartilage which control its movements, this is known as the hyoid apparatus.
Souce: https://chipperbirds.com/bird-tongue/
Bird Tongue Type:
- Muscular tongue
- Grooved tongue
- Nectarine tounge
- Thermoregulation
You can refer to this link to get more detail of those tongue type: https://chipperbirds.com/bird-tongue/
Hello I am worried that I accidentally hurt the tongue of a sunbird. I found a sunbird after hitting the window hurt and stationary with cobweb attached to its head and beak. After sometime I tried to remove the cobweb and I think it may have been stuck to its little tongue. I feel I may have damaged the poor birds tongue in the process. It’s tongue remained protruding and didn’t go the whole way back in it is beak. The sunbird was already in a very bad way before hand but I fear I made things worse by pulling off the web not realising it was attached to its tongue. I looked after the bird for the night placing in a little makeshift nest and following protocols but I fear it tongue was completely damaged. It tongue did not go back into its beak at all. Any advice?
An interesting article about bird tongue types.