Woodpeckers' taste: Sweet sap, savory ants - Science Daily


8/19/2022 12:00:00 AM2 years 8 months ago

Woodpeckers taste sweet things, but wrynecks -- unusual woodpeckers that specialize on ants -- lost the ability to taste sugars.

Many mammals have a sweet tooth, but birds lost their sweet receptor during evolution. Although hummingbirds and songbirds independently repurposed their savory receptor to sense sugars, how other bi… [+4012 chars]

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