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An extremely wary and secretive woodpecker. They have been seen around Nõva, but they won’t let themselves be observed.

 

Visiting the white-tailed eagle feeding ground was a piece of quite great daring on the part of this female bird. It is interesting to see how the bird uses its very long tongue – stretched to full length it reaches up to ten centimetres out from the tip of the beak. In contrast to the other woodpecker species, the tongue of the gray-headed woodpecker lacks barbs – it is smooth and with a widened tip. A  sticky substance in the saliva keeps the prey or food fixed to the tongue.

 

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Gray-headed woodpecker showing its tongue