The Eurasian wryneck (Jynx torquilla) gets its English name from the ability to turn its head almost 180 degrees. If disturbed at the nest, it uses this snake-like head twisting and hissing as a threat display. This odd behaviour led to its use in witchcraft, hence to put a jinx (jynx) on someone. A small but distinctive group of small Old World woodpeckers, wrynecks have large heads, long tongues which they use to extract their insect prey and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backwards. A bird of open countryside, woodland and orchards it breeds in temperate regions of Europe and Asia. It winters in Africa and Asia.
