Amazing Avian Answers Explored Do Birds Have Tongues

Birds are warm-blooded in nature like other vertebrates and are characterized by wings, beaks, feathers, and hollow bodies.The light skeleton helps them fly easily and float in the air. There numerous species of birds and depending upon various features, they are classified and put under various groups.While some birds can fly, some birds have a body too heavy that doesn’t permit them to soar high up into the sky. Surprisingly enough, birds have tongues. Birds lay eggs to give birth to young ones and unfertilized eggs, rich in protein content are consumed by humans.Amongst almost 10,000 species of birds, the majority are perching birds and are referred to as passerine. Almost all the species of birds have developed wings that aid them in flying except in moa and elephant birds, both of which are extinct and didn’t develop wings. Birds can be of various shapes and sizes. While the hummingbird is known to be the smallest bird species, the ostrich is the largest known bird species.After reading all about birds’ tongues, check out do birds chirp at night and how long do birds live?Why do some birds have tongues?Just like mammals, birds have tongues in their beaks. The size of these tongues may vary for different types of birds. These tongues in their beaks serve different purposes in different species of birds. Tongues come in many different shapes and sizes. Their tongues resemble a human tongue but they have additional features.In some birds, the tongue is split at the end, while in some the ends can be fringed. In others, there can be barbs that face backward and are present at the root of the tongue. These barbs help them in pushing their food to the gullet as they don’t swallow food like humans. The slit and barbs in the tongue vary in different birds. There are birds like woodpeckers and hummingbirds whose tongues can stretch outside their bill (beak). The mechanism works in a way where the cartilage supporting the tongue wraps around the skull thus blocking the right nostril.This ultra-long tongue in their beaks helps hummingbirds to collect nectar from plants and helps woodpeckers in finding insects from the bark of trees. Like some insects, the woodpecker’s tongue has a sticky substance present at the tip of their tongue. Thus, when they extend their tongues, insects get trapped on the sticky substance on the tip of their tongue. In sapsucker birds, the hairs on tongues help them in gathering sap from the bark of trees. In birds like flamingos, ducks, and other birds that collect food from water bodies, the tongue has hair-like structures, which help them in filtering food particles from mud to protect themselves from any internal issues.Ducks can use their tongues like pumps, which are similar to what geese do. They depress their tongues allowing water along with mud to flow into their mouth. Then they press their tongues upwards, thus, causing the mud to flow out from the sides and the food particles are trapped inside. In a similar manner, geese use tongues to filter food but at the same time, geese utilize tongues to tear off plants. In birds like penguins and red-breasted mergansers, their tongues are covered with spines. This helps the penguins in holding onto the fish collected from the water. Parrots have a bushy tongue that helps them in collecting pollen grains from flowers along with nectar from the tip. Parrots love collecting pollen grains and nectar from the tip of the flowers. Thus, the primary purpose of tongues in birds is to collect and eat food.Do bird tongues have taste buds?Yes, bird tongues, just like a human’s, have taste buds, but the taste buds are not as active as humans.Birds technically do not require taste buds. They eat their food in one go by swallowing it. The basic purpose of the tongue in birds is to acquire food, swallow or help in pushing the food to the gullet. While some birds use tongues to hold on to their prey once they have captured their prey with their beaks, others might use it to collect insects in their beaks and many others to filter out the food they catch from a mixture of mud and water.The food doesn’t stay inside the bird’s beak for a long time. Hence, they don’t need to taste food. The taste buds in their tongue are elementary in nature and are not that active. Their basic purpose is to find out if a particular food is fit to be consumed or if the fruit or leaves are poisonous or not.Different Types Of Tongues That Birds HaveBirds have different types of tongues that serve different purposes. The different types of tongues in birds are described below.Piston-like tongue: This type of tongue can be easily found in doves and pigeons. Their method of drinking water is similar to humans. Unlike other birds, they don’t have to push their head backward to drink water, instead, their tongue muscles perform a special function of pumping water inside their mouths, which makes it easier for them to swallow. This similar mechanism is also used by flamingos who drink water in a similar way. Their piston-like tongue also helps in filtering their food from the mud water.Grooved tongue: This is found in scavenging birds like vultures and eagles. Vultures feed on dead bodies. They follow a system of hierarchy in which a particular vulture can feed onto its body for a certain period after which it has to fly off and allow the next one to eat. These birds have a specialized organ called a crop where they store their food. The grooves in their tongue allow the food to pass quickly to the crop and they grab a mouthful of their share and locate a place where they can eat this food. In bearded vultures, the grooved tongue helps in pulling out the marrow from bones.Sticky tongue: In woodpeckers, the muscles of their barbed tongues are used to obtain food nearby. There is a sticky substance present on their tongue. When a woodpecker hears an insect crawling on the bark of a tree it immediately sticks out its tongue and the insect gets trapped in it. The tongue also serves as a cushion for the woodpecker when it’s pecking the trees and protects its brain from damage. The tongue of the northern flicker, found near North America, can stretch up to 2 in (5.08 cm) beyond the tip of its beak (bill). It’s the ideal instrument for penetrating anthills. A lengthened hyoid bone that extends into the bird’s upper mandible supports its long tongue.Muscular tongue: Parrots have a muscular tongue. This muscular tongue helps the parrot to mimic or talk, and hold on to food-like seeds with the help of muscles.Can a parrot get a tongue infection?Parrots do get tongue infections. Sometimes the rust in a cage can be a possible cause of infection in the tongues of parrots. Sometimes an infection in the tongue can occur because of a broken part of some toy getting stuck in their tongue. Here are some common tongue infections that a parrot can get.Hypovitaminosis: This is caused due to the deficiency of vitamin A. Symptoms include white patches appearing on the lower side of the tongue and can increase mucus production. The tongue gets swelled up and is followed by constant irritation. Causes include the parrot being fed too much seed foods. Treatment includes feeding the parrot a properly balanced diet.Poxvirus: This disease affects not just the tongue, but rather a number of organs. The diphtheritic form of the virus causes plague on the tongue. This is an insect-borne disease and mosquitoes act as a carrier.Trichomoniasis: This is a parasitic disease caused by the parasite Trichomonas gallinae. This happens due to the consumption of infected water. Characterized by the presence of white plague, known as a canker, on the surface of the tongue.Why do some parrots have black tongues?Parrot’s tongue color usually depends upon the color of their beaks. While some parrots have a black-colored tongue, there are many parrots with pink, gray, blue, and red tongues.Scientists are yet to discover and research why a parrot’s tongue is black in color. While many have explained that it’s because of the color of the beak, which must have been blackish-brown and hence, the similarity in the color of the tongue. While black tongue in parrots doesn’t mean that they are sick or infected, at the same time, if you notice that there is a sudden change near the color of the tongue, take it as an early sign of an infection and visit an avian specialist.Thus, a black tongue is not an issue, however, a change in color from black to something else should be treated properly. Parrots work in a way to manipulate their tongues to touch, lick, taste, and mimic or talk. A parrot’s tongue has a set of five bones in it. These five bones are together called hyoid apparatus. This hyoid apparatus keeps the tongue in place and provides control. The five bones in their tongue are known as epibranchial, ceratobranchial, urohyal, basihyal, and paraglossal.The paraglossal bone is a specially shaped bone. It is y-shaped and allows the parrot to hold things with the help of its tongue. Parrots generally stick out their tongues for reasons like tasting food that doesn’t fit in their mouths, for entertaining themselves, or for tasting mist in the air and mimicking, talking, or for playing. It is to note that a parrot’s tongue has only 300 taste buds while a human’s tongue has about 10,000 taste buds. Therefore, when a parrot desires to taste something it will generally stick its entire tongue out and try to fit in the food at the back portion of the tongue where the taste buds are located and then taste it.However, if you find that your parrot is constantly sticking its tongue out of its beak it may be because of some infection in its mouth and therefore you must visit an avian specialist immediately. It is a common thing that parrots click their tongue. This they do to express emotions, mostly happiness, joy, and excitement near their humans.Caring For Your Bird’s TongueEven though a bird’s tongue rests inside its beak, its tongue still might get injured. This can happen while your bird is doing everyday activities. The tongue of a bird is very soft and vascular in nature, thereby, a simple cut can cause the tongue to bleed profusely.A bird uses its tongue for activities like sensing, gathering food, playing, entertaining itself, and also for tasting food. Thus, while carrying out the above activities a bird might happen to slit its tongue on a sharp object or a part of a toy gets embedded inside its tongue. This will cause the tongue to bleed profusely and might even lead to infections. Often a parrot can injure its tongue when it faces aggressive birds, like cockatoos who fight with other birds and can cause harm to them while biting.These wounds can disrupt the normal functioning of the tongue of a parrot such that they become unable to feed themselves. Often, tongues become the site of various microbial, parasitic infections like trichomoniasis, poxvirus, and many others that might cause swelling of the tongue. Further, these infections might even lead to respiratory complications and might even cause death, behavioral changes, or the ability to clean or peck out feathers.Often two parrots fighting each other might cause a cut in the tongue or break one of the five important bones in the tongue. This will render the tongue invalid and the parrot will face complications in performing normal functions. To prevent the above disorders in your bird’s tongue you must repeatedly check if your bird’s tongue is healthy or not. This you can do either by observing your bird closely or by visiting an avian specialist periodically to check on your bird. A parrot’s tongue is healthy if the end part of the tongue where the glands are located is dry, secondly, if the surface of the tongue is smooth, a parrot’s tongue like few other birds is never rough, and lastly, when the tongue of a parrot doesn’t have any spots or blemishes or plague on its surface.If you find anyone amongst the above three factors not intact do visit an avian specialist and consult them about the changes. Another way you can take care of your parrot’s tongue is by keeping toys or sharp objects out of its reach to prevent parts of toys from getting stuck inside its mouth or hurting its tongue. Also, in homes, we usually keep birds in cages. It’s hygienic to clean the cages repeatedly and prevent them from rusting. If the bars get rusted consider getting a new cage. Rusts in cages may even cause infections in the tongue of a bird. Just like keeping the cage clean is important, at the same time keeping your pet bird clean is also important.Bathe your bird regularly to prevent it from getting infections on the skin. Keeping the tongue clean is important too. Feed your bird with a proper healthy balanced diet composed of essential nutrients required for its body. Often, a lack of vitamins may lead to spots on the tongue while causing other changes in the body. Therefore, feeding it with a proper diet will keep it out of tongue disorders. Thus, by following the steps mentioned here, you can take care of your bird’s tongue and keep it’s mouth healthy and out of risk of infectious diseases or cuts, or wounds.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for do birds have tongues, then why not take a look at birds respiratory system, or slaty headed parakeet facts?

Birds are warm-blooded in nature like other vertebrates and are characterized by wings, beaks, feathers, and hollow bodies.