How does a woodpecker use its long tongue to catch insects?

Woodpeckers use a highly specialized food-gathering apparatus to capture insects. Their long, distensible tongue is equipped with tiny barbs and coated in a sticky substance produced by enlarged salivary glands.1

To reach prey, the woodpecker uses its bill to create or access holes in wood. The tongue, which can be extended far beyond the reach of the bill, acts as both a probe and a "spear" to locate and extract insects from deep within these crevices. This remarkable extension is made possible by the hyoid apparatus, which features tremendously elongated "horns" that, when the tongue is retracted, often wrap around the back of the skull and over the top.1