Pharyngula

Posted by: LisaJ | February 16, 2009 11:23 PM

This really reminds me of the nature of my relationship with my brother when we were young. Oh, when will these crazy kids learn to get along?!

Posted by: JJR | February 16, 2009 11:25 PM

That'll teach Mr. Woodpecker to stick out his tongue during a fight...Cocky bastard ;-)

Posted by: Bullet Magnet | February 16, 2009 11:37 PM

How does that even happen?

Posted by: Holbach | February 16, 2009 11:50 PM

Flicker gothca tongue, eh?

Posted by: Big Rig | February 17, 2009 12:12 AM

Wait for it, wait for it.

Posted by: Coyote | February 17, 2009 12:27 AM

Whassamatta, bub? Bird got your tongue?

Posted by: Andyo | February 17, 2009 12:40 AM

Well, this one is right up there with the "Hang in there" cat pictures.

Posted by: woodstein312 | February 17, 2009 12:52 AM

Ah, nature.. beautiful and cruel

Posted by: blf | February 17, 2009 1:41 AM

So which one is the nice dog-worshipping creatin and which one is teh baby-eating gay nazi commie atheist mooslin evilutionista?

Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | February 17, 2009 2:57 AM

"All day long--tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. I was ready to go out there and strangle him."

Count your blessings. It could have been a raven tapping evermore.

Posted by: Ragutis | February 17, 2009 4:14 AM

Wait! I've seen this one! The flicker lets go and the tongue rolls up like a windowshade and the woodpecker's eyes bulge out with an "ayooogah" sound! ;)

They do have some wonderful wallpapers over there. I've spent a few hours there going through them before. I'm tempted to do so again, but I just grabbed one from "Lesbian Vampire Killers" earlier.

Posted by: Levi in NY | February 17, 2009 4:52 AM

On a semi-related note, can anyone tell me how they got away with naming a children's cartoon character Woody Woodpecker?

Posted by: Bone Oboe | February 17, 2009 5:22 AM

Yellow Flicker+Red Headed Woodpecker=Orange Peckerflickers?
I've been hit by birds trying to drive me away from nesting areas. Hit about the face and head. But an Orange Peckerflicker....whew! No thanks, I'll not tangle with the likes of them. The only consolation myself and others received was the fact that the nesting area happened to be large plaza at a busy SoCal mall. Late spring early summer the trees in the plaza would fill with nesting birds. The birds would attack at will. And my co-workers and I, being safe indoors would howl with laughter as folks going about their shopping, or lunching or Romero flick style shambling, would come under repeated and earnest attack, these brief and unpleasant Hitchcockian vignettes.
It's really unsettling to be suddenly catch an angry bird smiting.
And now as the tendrills of my prescription sleep aid increase their gossamer grip on my brain I'll sign off. Lest I stay and babble any more that I seem to have already done.

Posted by: Amanduh | February 17, 2009 7:10 AM

What a shot!

Posted by: NewEnglandBob | February 17, 2009 7:46 AM

Sorry to be completely OT, but something just died over at richarddawkins.net

Nope, must be your 'local' path to the server, probably a DNS screw-up. I have been going to RD.net many times each day with no problems whatsoever.

Posted by: Lord Zero | February 17, 2009 8:10 AM

Beautiful. I wonder how those guys manage to
take shoots like this ? Luck, time and expansive
photographic equipment i guess.

Posted by: Kelly | February 17, 2009 8:19 AM

Nature red in tooth, claw, and tounge!

Posted by: Lee Picton | February 17, 2009 10:10 AM

This is pretty impressive, but ounce for ounce, the most pugnacious birds of all are hummingbirds! I have seen males fighting over territory actually crashing into one another, trying to knock each other out of the air. Once the vanquished was knocked into the wall of our cabin with an audible thud. You can hardly believe it possible until you have seen it.

Posted by: the pro from dover | February 17, 2009 10:14 AM

To aquaria: In colorado, male flickers commonly take up residence in the rooftop outlets for fireplaces (here mandated to be gas), where they drum on the aluminum tubing to attract mates. Magnified by the length of tubing it sounds like a jackhammer inside. Not much of a bargain. In fact people pay $ to pest control providers to get rid of them. As far as birds are concerned I would appreciate more photos of the elusive pink breasted mattress thrasher.

Posted by: Allen N | February 17, 2009 11:13 AM

It would appear that the woodpecker is trying to retrieve his tongue using his left leg. Now THAT's UFC stuff!

Posted by: Blondin | February 17, 2009 12:28 PM

"I was born on a pirate ship!"

Posted by: Notagod | February 17, 2009 3:57 PM

Health inspector checks patient's tongue for signs of avian flu.

Posted by: Chris | February 17, 2009 7:59 PM

mothra @ #45:

You have made my evening. That bit of info--that Woody Woodpecker (whose voice was another triumph of that great and endlessly versatile artist, Mel Blanc) was an ivory-billed--fills me with delight and wonder.

Thank you.

Posted by: Ed Darrell | February 18, 2009 5:27 AM

1. What will the creationists make of this? Duane Gish had about a 40-minute slide show on the impossibility of evolution for "Mr. Woodpecker," who would have starved to death waiting for woodpecker traits to evolve, like the zagodactyl feet, the tongue wrapped around the head, and so on. Gish went so far as to say "no other bird" has a hyoid bone in its tongue (if there is any bird that doesn't have a hyoid, I haven't found it). And here, in this photo, we have two radically different woodpeckers . . . it could make creationists explode. (One of my favorites: Gish said "Mr. Woodpecker" would starve to death waiting for "the special sticky fluid" on its tongue to evolve, apparently missing the point that almost every creature that has a tongue, including all other birds, has saliva, which is the "special sticky fluid.")

2. Check the voices again; Mrs. Walter Lantz did the Woody Woodpecker laugh, most of the time. Blanc did only the first four Woody cartoons, which are probably unfamiliar to those who loved Lantz's later work (his studio closed down in 1972, years after most of the others had gone).

3. When Woody came along, in 1940, was there any salacious or profane meaning to the name? But heck, if they could get Beaver Cleaver on mainstream television 20 years later, why not Woody Woodpecker?

Posted by: Leslie in Canada | February 18, 2009 2:25 PM

Ed Darrell: thanks for the posting about Duane Gish. I was driving through the wilds of central Pennsylvania one day and channel-surfing the radio. A kindly old guy was talking about woodpeckers and I was quite interested as he described the various types. But then when he got to the Green-Headed European Woodpecker (or whatever it was) and described the tongue snaking all over the inside of its head he went on to say that the woodpecker could not possibly have evolved this way but was clearly just as Gawd made him. His description of the tongue made me think that Gawd must not have been much of a designer. Anyway, I always wondered about the old guy and I suspect now it was old Duane.