It's all about the birds
All or most birds have forked tongues. The fork is at the rear of the elevated section of the tongue. Bird tongues have an arrowhead shape section sitting on a cylindrical base section. Having handled thousands of birds for banding the tongue looks like any other bird’s tongue to me or am I missing something? … Read more
Here in wilmington SA, the red wattlebirds seem to have it in for the weebills. In thinking about this I have some ideas: – food competition in terms of insects, although the hugely different size of the two birds makes me wonder if they are eating different insects. There is a report in HANZAAB of weebill … Read more
Hi Tony, I think Peter is correct. I’ve had a closer look by magnifying the picture and it looks like the tip of the tongue is bent downwards rather than it being forked. In general, the tongue of large raptors is deeply grooved longitudinally. I suspect that assists with directing body fluids of its … Read more
It’s just in a V shape, isn’t it? Peter Shute Get Outlook for iOS From: Birding-Aus <birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org> on behalf of Tony Ashton <tonyashton0@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2020 3:48:51 PM To: Birding-Aus <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> Subject: [Birding-Aus] White-bellied Sea-eagle forked tongue Hi all, Can’t puzzle out why the bird pictured (seen at TownCommon Cons. Pk. yesterday … Read more