DSC6176 Wryneck.. - a photo on Flickriver

DSC6176 Wryneck..

            Wryneck - Jynx Torquilla
 
The wrynecks (genus Jynx) are a small but distinctive group of small Old World woodpeckers. Jynx is from the Ancient Greek iunx, the Eurasian wryneck.
 
Like the true woodpeckers, wrynecks have large heads, long tongues which they use to extract their insect prey and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backwards. However, they lack the stiff tail feathers that the true woodpeckers use when climbing trees, so they are more likely than their relatives to perch on a branch rather than an upright trunk.
 
Their bills are shorter and less dagger-like than in the true woodpeckers, but their chief prey are ants and other insects, which they find in decaying wood or almost bare soil. They re-use woodpecker holes for nesting, rather than making their own holes. The eggs are white, as with many hole nesters.
 
The two species have cryptic plumage, with intricate patterning of greys and browns. The adult moults rapidly between July and September, although some moult continues in its winter quarters. The voice is a nasal woodpecker-like call.
 
These birds get their English name from their ability to turn their heads almost 180 degrees. When disturbed at the nest, they use this snake-like head twisting and hissing as a threat display.
 
Population:
 
UK passage:
 
Approx: 280 birds

Taken on: September 23, 2018

Tags:

Wryneck

Woodlands

Wildlife.

Wildbirds

Wetlands

Wildlife Photography

Jeff Lack Photography

Hedgerows

Summer Migrant

Trees

Farmland

Forest

Moorland

Marshland

Meadows

Marshes

Moors

Countryside

Norfolk

Nature « less

Sets appears in: • Wryneck

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