WRYNECK  

The wryneck, found throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, is a bird classified either as a family, Jyngidae, or as a subfamily, Jynginae, in the woodpecker family, Picidae. In both courtship and defense, wrynecks spread their long tails, erect their neck and head feathers, and jerk their heads either back and forth or side to side, hissing the entire time.

About 18 cm (7 in) long and resembling woodpeckers in structure and behavior, wrynecks catch ants and insect pupae with their sticky tongues and generally nest in tree hollows, or sometimes in banks. Wrynecks cling to tree trunks but generally perch, and their slender bills are sharply pointed rather than chisel shaped as in typical woodpeckers. Inhabitants of open forests and clearings, wrynecks have soft plumage with a cryptic, mottled pattern of brown, black, and gray.

The seven or eight white eggs are primarily incubated by the female. Both parents share in feeding by regurgitating their food and passing it to their young's beaks. As a result of hunting and pesticides, the wryneck, Jynx torquilla, is uncommon in Europe; the African wryneck, J. ruficollis, is found south of the Sahara.