Do Woodpeckers Get Headaches?

Up here in North Central Wisconsin, the Downy Woodpecker is a frequent visitor to our suet bird feeder. They are quite tolerant of other species and mix right in with the other birds that come to our feeders. Both the male and female Downy Woodpeckers stay in the same areas both winter and summer. The Downy Woodpecker can find food that larger woodpeckers cannot, such as the insect larvae within the stems of weeds. They can hang right onto goldenrod galls and peck out the gall fly larvae.

The Downy Woodpecker varies slightly in color and size across its range which covers most of North America. If you have ever seen or even heard a woodpecker pecking at a tree, they peck at seemingly lightning speed. Incredibly, they can peck air-hammer style at a speed of twenty pecks per second! So with all that pecking, pounding and tapping, youd think Woodpeckers would be suffering from splitting headaches. The reason they dont is because God, in His wisdom, gave Woodpeckers built in safeguards against head trauma. First off, a birds body is designed to absorb the impact. A split second before a strike comes across the bill, thick muscles in the neck contract, causing the woodpecker to close its inner eyelids. Some of the force travels down the neck muscles and protects the skull bones from the bone-jarring shock. They even have a special soft bone in their skull that acts like a shock absorber. As they peck, their eyelids are closed and that not only protects their eyes from ...