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Hi all,
During the SAOA outing on Saturday
someone posed the question
" do all birds have some kind of tongue?" We
all thought the answer had to be yes, but some bird tongues are much more
obvious than others, ie honeyeaters with their well known brush tips and the
parrot types with their large fat tongues, but very little seems to ever get
said about tongues in other types of birds.
We assumed that most birds use their tongue
to assist in swallowing ( and of course Swallows, no pun, and others use saliva
in building their nests), but what about say Cormorants and other birds
which swallow ( gulp) down quite large fish? And Pigeons which gulp down
some very large fruits and seeds? Wouldn't a tongue be more of a hindrance than
a help in such cases?
We couldn't imagine there being less than at least
some tongue however vestigial in all birds.
Tony in Adelaide.
phone: 08 8337 5959
e-mail:
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