Pilar is capable of great focus in her work...

Photo by Gloria Z Nagler

Pilar is a Pileated Woodpecker whose tongue is long, but actually shorter than some woodpeckers' tongues. Her tongue is barbed at the tip (looks like dark spot here) to enable Pilar to extract bugs from deep holes in trees.

Pilar, like other woodpeckers, stores her tongue by winding it around the back of her head between her skin and skull. The wound-up tongue also helps cushion her brain from the shock of her pecking.

---Gloria Z Nagler