Wryneck
Encyclopedia
The wrynecks are a small but distinctive group of small Old World
woodpecker
s.
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 is ant
s 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 voice is a nasal woodpecker-like call.
These bird
s 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. This odd behaviour led to their use in witchcraft, hence to put a "jinx
" on someone.
There are two species:
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
woodpecker
Woodpecker
Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....
s.
Like the true woodpeckers, wrynecks have large heads, long tongues which they use to extract their insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
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 is ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s 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 voice is a nasal woodpecker-like call.
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s get their English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
name from their ability to turn their heads almost 180 degrees. When disturbed at the nest, they use this snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
-like head twisting and hissing as a threat display. This odd behaviour led to their use in witchcraft, hence to put a "jinx
Jinx
A jinx, in popular superstition and folklore, is:* A type of curse placed on a person that makes them prey to many minor misfortunes and other forms of bad luck;...
" on someone.
There are two species:
- Eurasian WryneckEurasian WryneckThe Eurasian Wryneck, Jynx torquilla, is a species of wryneck in the family of woodpeckers.This species breeds in temperate regions of Europe and Asia. It is migratory, wintering in tropical Africa and southern Asia. It is a bird of open woodland and orchards...
, Jynx torquilla - Red-throated Wryneck, or Rufous-necked Wryneck, Jynx ruficollis