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Eurasian Wryneck

Eurasian Wryneck

Jynx torquilla

Identify the Eurasian Wryneck by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Eurasian Wryneck is a slim, cryptically patterned member of the woodpecker family, named for its ability to twist its head snake-like when threatened. It breeds widely across temperate Europe and Asia, and most birds migrate to tropical Africa or southern Asia for the winter. This unobtrusive bird favours open, tree-dotted landscapes where it feeds on ants.

Did you know?

  • It is the only European woodpecker that migrates long distances.
  • In ancient Greece it was used as a love charm, and its Greek name iunx gave rise to the word “jinx”.

Voice

Song

About the species

Identification

A small, grey-brown woodpecker relative, finely mottled and barred like bark, with dark longitudinal stripes on the back and head; the throat is yellowish and barred. The bill is short, and the tail fairly long. It is told from true woodpeckers by its camouflage plumage, its habit of feeding on the ground and its shrill, even “kyee-kyee” song; the flight is quick and gently undulating.

Family

Picidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, grey, black, white

About the habitat

Open or lightly wooded country – forest edges, orchards, parkland, clearings, hedgerows and gardens – with scattered trees and ant-rich ground; also open pine forest in the north.

Diet

Mainly ants and their larvae and pupae, taken from the ground and anthills with its long sticky tongue; also other small insects.

Behaviour

Migratory and rather secretive; it often feeds on the ground and does not climb trunks or drum like other woodpeckers. It nests in existing holes or nest boxes and lays white eggs in May–June. When threatened at the nest it hisses and twists its head like a snake. Its song is a repeated, shrill series of notes.

Sources

Photo: Бусел В.А., CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jynx torquilla крутиголовка.jpg

Sound: Kim Erlend Vidal, XC561861, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/561861

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_wryneck

See also