Many members of the bird world too rely on sense of touch to find food. For instance, debbling ducks and probing plovers use touch to find prey. The number of touch receptors or corpuscles in the end of the bill of these birds exceeds even the nerve endings in the human finger-tip. Using this sense, most waders can blindly explore sand and mud, and avocets are able to sweep ahead of them, snapping up any tiny aquatic creature it might touch. Spoonbills work with curious-shaped bills in the same way.
Woodpeckers have touch-sensitive cells at the tip of the tongue.
With these, they can explore the tunnels of wood-boring insects and insect larvae. Once located, the juicy morsel is hooked out by the bird s barbed and sticky tongue. The most extraordinary reliance on touch is, perhaps, shown by the skimmer. Seen head-on, it is very thin and is built to offer minimum resistance. The bird feeds by flying up and down with its head very close to the water.