Strong feet and claws and stiff tail feathers enable this bird to cling to vertical trunks and branches into which it probes with its sharp bill in its search for larvae which it extracts with its long sticky tongue. Ants also are much sought after and here again the specially adapted tongue is used. It nests in tree trunks, making a kind of vertical tunnel down from the entrance hole at the bottom of which the eggs are deposited.
The ringing call has been likened to a derisive laugh, and one of its country names is the "Yaffle".
