EntranceThe longest languages in the world. Which bird has the longest tongue Which bird has the longest
It starts in the right nostril, then divides into two halves, goes around the entire head, including the neck, passes through the opening of the beak, and then becomes one again - sounds creepy, doesn’t it? But this is precisely the structure of the tongue of the bird that has the longest tongue in the world.
Exclusive language
All of us, if we haven’t seen it, have certainly heard a woodpecker rhythmically tapping on a tree trunk. In an attempt to get food, this bird has to expose the trunk of a tree, then gouge a hole in the wood, and then use its long tongue, which, thanks to its unique structure and length, is able to get larvae and insects from the depths.
The woodpecker's thin and sticky tongue can easily get a treat even from ant tunnels. Thanks to the nerve endings located on the tongue, the woodpecker is not mistaken with prey, which has to be caught by touch.
In most feathered creatures, the tongue is held at the back of the beak and is located in the oral cavity. In a woodpecker, pay attention to the picture, the tongue begins to grow from the right nostril! When the woodpecker is not engaged in obtaining food, the tongue is curled. Placed in the nostril and under the skin that protects the skull.
Evolution or intelligent design?
Many people remember from a school biology course about natural selection and mutations, during which those individuals who have managed to adapt to the surrounding world continue their life path and development. But what advantage does a bird gain if its tongue moves from its usual place to the right nostril, and even begins to grow backwards? Further developments would show that such a bird simply died of starvation.
The woodpecker gained an advantage when its tongue made a full circle around its head and settled in its usual place in its beak. Despite the fact that the woodpecker has a unique tongue structure, evolutionists have no doubt that this bird evolved from other birds with a standard language. But they argue that the woodpecker's tongue is the result of intelligent design.
Woodpecker feeding
The bird, which has the longest tongue in the world, has the finest hearing. The quiet sound made by an insect eating wood will not be ignored. Woodpeckers feed on what they find in the bark, under the bark, inside the bark, in the wood.
Some of the woodpeckers hunt not only in wood; they use anthills and stumps to search for food. Some individuals search for larvae in the earth's thickness. Typically, a bird's diet consists of bugs, larvae, ants, worms and caterpillars. The northern brothers are not averse to eating nuts.
Woodpecker family
Woodpeckers are monogamous and are faithful to their partner throughout the season. Birds breed a couple of times a year. Every year, woodpeckers hollow out a new home for themselves and do not use other people’s buildings. Woodpeckers prefer to use trees with soft wood to build their homes. It happens that the length of such a dwelling reaches half a meter. Woodpeckers use sawdust as bedding.
Woodpeckers in nature
Woodpeckers, for their active fight against pests, were nicknamed “forest orderlies.” They bring obvious help in forests that have stood for many years and are full of old trees. But in young animals, woodpeckers do more harm than good. The abundance of hollows spoils the structure of a young tree. If you regularly chisel the same tree for three or four years, as sucking woodpeckers like to do, then it will die.
These birds are rare in zoos, but they get used to people quite quickly. We have dealt a little with the question of which bird has the longest tongue, it is time to pay attention to other representatives of the vertebrate world.
Bat
In the world of mammals, the champion in tongue length was a bat recently discovered in Ecuador. The length of this organ is 3.5 times the length of the owner’s body and is 8.5 cm. It was possible to measure the tongue of this charming lady when she was treated to sugared water in a narrow and long test tube.
Australian echidna
The egg-laying mammal has an elongated nose. At the end of which both the nose and mouth are located, inside there is a very thin and long tongue. If the animal sticks out its tongue, we will see 18 centimeters of tongue covered with sticky liquid.
Chameleons
This lizard's tongue reaches half a meter. The length of this organ depends on the size of the chameleon; the larger the animal, the longer its tongue. This representative of the scaly order straightens his tongue for hundredths of a second - the elusive movement can only be seen with the help of slow motion.
Ant-eater
The anteater is a toothless animal, although with a 60-centimeter sticky tongue, no teeth are needed. Ants and termites are eaten as food. In one minute, an anteater can stick out and retract its tongue more than one and a half hundred times.
Giraffe
The tallest mammal on Earth sometimes lacks its own height. The animal compensates for this deficiency with its long tongue. With the help of a 45-centimeter tongue, the animal obtains food for itself, consisting of leaves of trees and shrubs.
Some birds have very long tongues, and there are animals with extremely long tongues. In addition, there is evidence regarding long tongues in humans. It is interesting to know about all these “champions”.
The longest tongue of a bird
Oddly enough, the woodpecker has the longest tongue among all birds. This is not a large bird, its size varies from fifteen to fifty-three centimeters, while the tongue reaches sizes from fifteen to twenty centimeters. It turns out that the length of the tongue is several times longer than the beak.Woodpeckers live almost everywhere, but wooded areas are preferred for their residence. The reason is the lifestyle and diet of these birds. Their main food is tree-dwelling insects. When obtaining food, the woodpecker uses its beak like a jackhammer, making holes in the bark of trees in this way. This opens up the food passages in which insects hide. With its amazingly long tongue, the bird takes them out of these holes.
It’s amazing that a woodpecker’s tongue can stretch out and become so thin that it can easily penetrate even an ant passage. There is a special gland on the tongue, thanks to which the tongue is covered with a sticky liquid, which is why insects simply stick to it.
The tongue is fixed in the right nostril, and not in the mouth. At the same time, it, dividing into two parts, encircles the head and neck, then is inserted into the beak through a special hole, where it connects again. It turns out that when the woodpecker does not use its tongue, it is located at the back of its neck, under the skin, and also in its nostril.
A number of experts argue that such a structure of language is evidence of intelligent activity, and not the result of gradual evolution.
Girls with long tongues
There is such an expression as “too long tongue.” This is often said about those who are not averse to gossiping or discussing a person. However, in the world people have long tongues in the literal, and not just the figurative sense of the word. It is not clear how such people have an extra-long tongue that fits in their mouth. 
There are a lot of photographs on the Internet in which you can see girls and others showing off their long tongues. Annika Imler is the official owner of a long tongue among women. The outer part of her tongue is seven centimeters. Another record holder is Chanel Tapper, who lives in California. The length of her tongue is 9.8 centimeters.
The longest tongue of an animal
There are a large number of animals that have very long tongues. Until recently, it was believed that the chameleon had the longest tongue. In this animal, the length of the tongue and the length of the body are always approximately the same. On average, the length of the tongue reaches fifty centimeters. In a large and long individual, the tongue is correspondingly longer. It is impossible to see it extended to its full length with the naked eye. Only slow motion can help, since the chameleon throws out its tongue only for 0.05 seconds. By making well-aimed “shots” with their tongues, animals provide themselves with food. 
The South American bat, which is considered quite rare, has the longest tongue among known mammals. Its tongue is as much as 1.5 times longer than its body. The bat stores its tongue in the chest, and the tongue is somehow compressed three times and is located between the heart and sternum in a special place.
This mammal was discovered only in 2003 in Ecuador. The discoverer was an American biologist, who was very surprised when he determined that the tongue is fifty percent longer than the mouse’s body. So, its length is about 8.5 centimeters, and the body length of this bat is about 5-6 centimeters.
The South American bat feeds on the nectar of a flower with an extremely long corolla. Its name is Centropogon nigricans. Only the tongue of this little bat can “reach” the nectar inside this flower. In half a second, the tongue of a mammal manages to dive for nectar into the “flower tube” seven times. It turns out that these flowers can only be pollinated by this species of bat. It seems that nature created them for each other.
The longest tongue in the world
We can sum it up by finding out who speaks the longest language in the whole world. The longest tongue in the world among animals is the chameleon, among all species of birds - the woodpecker, but among mammals - this is a rare species of bat that lives in Ecuador. Among people, the record holder is Stephen Taylor. With the average length of the human tongue being five centimeters, his tongue fell short of ten centimeters by only two millimeters. Measurements are taken from the center of the upper lip to the very tip of the tongue, that is, only the outer part is measured. 
It is impossible not to mention the length of the tongue of some other representatives of our planet. Thus, a snake’s tongue can reach a length of twenty-five centimeters, a cow’s tongue reaches forty-five centimeters, a giraffe, trying to reach the leaves, extends its tongue forty-five centimeters. The anteater, deprived of teeth, is forced to obtain food through a sixty-centimeter-long tongue. The largest lizard (Komodo dragon) has a tongue that reaches seventy centimeters in length.
The blue whale, which is also called the blue whale, is recognized as having the longest and at the same time largest tongue in the world. Its tongue can be three meters long. The whale uses its tongue to filter the krill, which enters its oral cavity along with water.
The chameleon and blue whale are certainly unique animals. But there are creatures that are simply amazing. As the site's correspondents found out, some dogs' fur is longer than a meter, and some animals are more like plants. You can read more about this in the article about the most unusual animals in the world.
Subscribe to our channel in Yandex.Zen
It starts in the right nostril, then divides into two halves, goes around the entire head, including the neck, passes through the opening of the beak, and then becomes one again - sounds creepy, doesn’t it? But this is precisely the structure of the tongue of the bird that has the longest tongue in the world.
Exclusive language
All of us, if we haven’t seen it, have certainly heard a woodpecker rhythmically tapping on a tree trunk. In an attempt to get food, this bird has to expose the trunk of a tree, then gouge a hole in the wood, and then use its long tongue, which, thanks to its unique structure and length, is able to get larvae and insects from the depths.
The woodpecker's thin and sticky tongue can easily get a treat even from ant tunnels. Thanks to the nerve endings located on the tongue, the woodpecker is not mistaken with prey, which has to be caught by touch.
In most feathered creatures, the tongue is held at the back of the beak and is located in the oral cavity. In a woodpecker, pay attention to the picture, the tongue begins to grow from the right nostril! When the woodpecker is not engaged in obtaining food, the tongue is curled. Placed in the nostril and under the skin that protects the skull.
Evolution or intelligent design?
Many people remember from a school biology course about natural selection and mutations, during which those individuals who have managed to adapt to the surrounding world continue their life path and development. But what advantage does a bird gain if its tongue moves from its usual place to the right nostril, and even begins to grow backwards? Further developments would show that such a bird simply died of starvation.
The woodpecker gained an advantage when its tongue made a full circle around its head and settled in its usual place in its beak. Despite the fact that the woodpecker has a unique tongue structure, evolutionists have no doubt that this bird evolved from other birds with a standard language. But they argue that the woodpecker's tongue is the result of intelligent design.
Woodpecker feeding
The bird, which has the longest tongue in the world, has the finest hearing. The quiet sound made by an insect eating wood will not be ignored. Woodpeckers feed on what they find in the bark, under the bark, inside the bark, in the wood.
Some of the woodpeckers hunt not only in wood; they use anthills and stumps to search for food. Some individuals search for larvae in the earth's thickness. Typically, a bird's diet consists of bugs, larvae, ants, worms and caterpillars. The northern brothers are not averse to eating nuts.
Woodpecker family
Woodpeckers are monogamous and are faithful to their partner throughout the season. Birds breed a couple of times a year. Every year, woodpeckers hollow out a new home for themselves and do not use other people’s buildings. Woodpeckers prefer to use trees with soft wood to build their homes. It happens that the length of such a dwelling reaches half a meter. Woodpeckers use sawdust as bedding.
Woodpeckers in nature
Woodpeckers, for their active fight against pests, were nicknamed “forest orderlies.” They bring obvious help in forests that have stood for many years and are full of old trees. But in young animals, woodpeckers do more harm than good. The abundance of hollows spoils the structure of a young tree. If you regularly chisel the same tree for three or four years, as sucking woodpeckers like to do, then it will die.
These birds are rare in zoos, but they get used to people quite quickly. We have dealt a little with the question of which bird has the longest tongue, it is time to pay attention to other representatives of the vertebrate world.
Bat
In the world of mammals, the champion in tongue length was a bat recently discovered in Ecuador. The length of this organ is 3.5 times the length of the owner’s body and is 8.5 cm. It was possible to measure the tongue of this charming lady when she was treated to sugared water in a narrow and long test tube.
Australian echidna
The egg-laying mammal has an elongated nose. At the end of which both the nose and mouth are located, inside there is a very thin and long tongue. If the animal sticks out its tongue, we will see 18 centimeters of tongue covered with sticky liquid.
Chameleons
This lizard's tongue reaches half a meter. The length of this organ depends on the size of the chameleon; the larger the animal, the longer its tongue. This representative of the scaly order straightens his tongue for hundredths of a second - the elusive movement can only be seen with the help of slow motion.
Ant-eater
The anteater is a toothless animal, although with a 60-centimeter sticky tongue, no teeth are needed. Ants and termites are eaten as food. In one minute, an anteater can stick out and retract its tongue more than one and a half hundred times.
Giraffe
The tallest mammal on Earth sometimes lacks its own height. The animal compensates for this deficiency with its long tongue. With the help of a 45-centimeter tongue, the animal obtains food for itself, consisting of leaves of trees and shrubs.
The tongue is an organ that almost all vertebrates have, and they can do completely different things with it. Here are 10 of the most unusual languages in the animal kingdom.
Language Blue whale, or blue whale(lat. Balaenoptera musculus)
This organ weighs up to three tons, but there are specimens twice as heavy. It is by far the largest tongue in the animal kingdom. And at the same time, its relative size is very small in comparison with the size and weight of a whale, which reaches 70 tons. This grandiose animal uses its tongue like a ladle, scooping up water and filtering food (plankton) from it. By the way, fifty people can fit on the tongue of a blue whale!
The most famous language in the animal world is the language. The chameleon has the longest tongue - in some individuals it can reach the length of the body along with the tail. In addition, this is a very fast language, it takes 40 milliseconds to “shoot”, and half a second to “reload”. The chameleon's tongue is a long tube with a sticky ball at the end, consisting of a special secretion secreted by special glands. When folded, the tongue is folded around a special bone in the chameleon's mouth called the Processus entoglossus. To fire, the chameleon must relax the longitudinal muscles that hold the tongue and act like a spring. Some chameleons can be up to 70 cm in length, and can catch not only insects, but even small birds and small rodents on their tongues.
Fire salamander.
The longest tongue, relative to the length of the body, has a small salamander, measuring only 6 cm in length. Her tongue reaches 7 centimeters! In general, salamanders are amazing creatures. In addition to the long tongue, they have several other interesting features. For example, some of their species are not afraid of direct exposure to open fire for several seconds. at the same time, their skin begins to secrete a special substance in large quantities, which protects the animal from high temperatures, making it possible to simply escape. So the legends about non-flammable lizards have a basis.
Giant's tongue pangolin with a body length of 1 meter it is up to 80 cm in length. But this is not its main feature. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the muscles that move the tongue are unusually developed and run along the entire body, attaching to the bone almost near the tail. This feature gives the animal the opportunity to deal with a large number of termites, which he loves to eat (eat)
Language giraffe is more than half a meter in length, being the strongest and longest among ungulates. The giraffe's tongue and palate are so developed and rough that it can easily handle the most thorny plants, such as acacia. Have you ever tried chewing or licking an acacia tree? That's just a piece of cake for a giraffe.
In many languages of the world there is an expression “tongue without bones.” We know that there really are no bones in the tongue. But there are animals that, oddly enough, have bones in their tongues. For example, these are fish of the Osteoglossiformes family. In fact, their name in Latin means “bony tongue.” The most significant representatives of this family are giant arapaima, which are found in the Amazon. The length of these sprat is up to 4 and a half meters, and their weight is up to 200 kilograms.
Round-lipped bat found in the mountains of Ecuador. Its size is the same. like an ordinary field mouse, but the tongue is 9 centimeters long. For some reason, such mice are considered vampires, although they feed on flower nectar, like hummingbirds. The relative size of the tongue of this mouse is second only to that of the chameleon, and holds the lead among all mammals. This bat has many hairs on its tongue that absorb nectar and carry pollen from tree to tree.
U shellfish There is also a semblance of a tongue, it is called a radula (grater). The common garden snail has about 15 thousand teeth on its tongue. Terrible beast!
On the tip of the tongue snapping turtle there is a process, it looks like a large red worm, with the help of which it lures prey. To do this, the turtle lies down on the bottom, opens its mouth and begins to wave its bait tongue. The fish, attracted by this, swims straight into the turtle’s mouth, and it has no choice but to close it and eat the poor fellow.
And finally, a little bit of spice. There is such a bird - flamingo. So it has a special language. Flamingos hunt in shallow water by lowering their heads into the water, waving their tongues and shaking their heads, acting as a pump with their tongues, driving algae and small crustaceans into their beaks. But the most interesting thing about this whole process is that the tongue behaves like a penis in this process. It becomes larger thanks to the special tissues of which it is composed. After a few seconds of this “fishing”, the tongue becomes hard and more effectively drives water into the center of the beak, where it is filtered and discharged along its sides. This is such a mysterious bird - flamingo. No one else in the animal world has such a feature - variable tongue hardness within wide limits.
To the question: Which bird has the longest tongue? given by the author Mila the best answer is The woodpecker has a long, most amazing tongue. Looking for insects in the bark and trunks of trees, the woodpecker hollows out a hole with its beak, but the beak is not long enough to reach the larvae hidden in the wood. Here a flexible tongue with horny hooks at the tip comes to the rescue: the woodpecker launches it into a tree passage and, having groped for prey, deftly picks it up. The tongue, already long, can also be extended from the oral cavity with the help of a long ribbon that goes around the entire skull and is attached to the nostril. The woodpecker's tongue is often longer than the bird's body (10-15 cm). Do you imagine a tongue larger than the length of the body? Even chameleons and frogs cannot boast of such a tongue, but they are recognized champions in this matter.
The tongue is round in cross-section, hard at the end and with tiny teeth along the edges. In the beak the tongue is curled like a spring. Like a long thin snake, it dashingly “crawls” into all the nooks and crannies of the tree that have been hollowed out and eaten by bark beetles. 
It is sticky, has a spiked end and is very long; a green woodpecker, for example, is able to stick it out of its mouth 10 centimeters. All birds, except the woodpecker, have a tongue in their mouth - just like you and me. But for a woodpecker this is unacceptable: such a tongue cannot be “stored” in the mouth - it will get tangled and turn into a ball. In order for such an insect-catching device to fit in the throat, the evolution that created the woodpecker had to remove the tendonous base of the tongue from the oral cavity and wrap it in a loop around the skull! His super-long tongue “grows” from his right nostril and, passing right under the skin, wraps around his entire head! Everything is very neat and convenient. 
Well, let’s say, after all, that a woodpecker keeps its tongue in its mouth. And what grows from the nostril are the lingual horns, the muscles that support the tongue. 
“The hyoid apparatus consists of an elongated body that supports the base of the tongue and long horns. In some birds, such as woodpeckers, very long horns go around the entire skull. When the hyoid muscles contract, the horns slide along the connective tissue bed, and the tongue extends out of the oral cavity almost the length of the beak ". 