If you look closely you can see that its beak is open, and even that its tongue is trilling along

Sometimes the best way to find birds to photograph is to just stop and listen. That is how I found this Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) while I was out kayaking one day. This is a small bird, and could be easy to miss for it size and coloration, except that it likes to sit on top of clumps of vegetation and sing. It sang. I listened. I photographed.

The sparrow was by a small tidal channel that I was kayaking down, the cat tails the last remnant of a previously fresh water habitat.

The current was moving the wrong direction to float me past, so I grounded the nose of my kayak nearby and captured these mid morning shots.

ISO 320, 420mm, 1/640 shutter, f/8.0

For more animal tongues, you can have a look at these animals-

River Otter tongue
Gull’s tongue while swallowing a whole starfish
Tule Elk tongue
White-tailed Kite tongue (it’s a type of bird/hawk/raptor
Sea Lion tongue