Flicker Got Your Tongue?

We're right in the middle of a Wii boxing tournament at work right now. (Go Cameron and Doug!) After seeing a pretty vicious bird picture on Twitter, though, I decided that people are going about their boxing strategy all wrong. Sure, punching your opponent in the solar plexus works. But you could really do some damage if you could manage somehow to grab...his tongue?

Check out this National Geographic action shot of two members of the woodpecker family squaring off, and you'll see what I mean. The Northern flicker (on the left) isn't afraid of playing dirty. I just hope the red-headed woodpecker (on the right) didn't damage his tongue too much. He needs it to lick bugs out from under dead bark.

Don't feel too bad for him, though. The redhead is known as a big bully in the woodpecker family, and he often catches grasshoppers and wedges them alive into wood crevices for a "fresh" snack later.

And you thought Wii boxing was brutal.