We had a mother and young woodpecker show up at our feeding station today. Apparently, the red bellied woodpeckers had a nest and raised a couple of babies nearby. The young one landed on the feeder that we stock with bread and starting making noise to the mother to feed it.
These birds are very used to us being around and didn’t seem to mind as I went out to photograph the feeding. Even though the young birds should be able to feed themselves, they much prefer the adult to tear off some bread and feed them.
When I was editing the photos, I noticed the one on the right shows the tongue of the young bird being used to eat the bread. I guess that’s not a big deal, but I have never given much thought to bird tongues. Click on the photo to see a larger version
We put bread in a suet feeder and the birds really love it. One note, if you are going to feed bread to wild birds, make sure it is fresh and mold free. Some bread mold will harm wild birds. Only put out enough bread that will be eaten in a day. Just like humans, brown bread is better for them than white.
FOG sez: Why are they called red bellied woodpeckers? There is no red on their bellies.
FOG is a bit of a smart aleck old guy. 
