Around springtime, woodpecker activity starts livening up. These delightful birds begin drumming out sweet nothings to one another and excavating their nests. Woodpeckers can peck up to 20 times per second, moving their heads around 15 miles an hour! So how do woodpeckers peck so fast?

It’s all in their anatomy: woodpecker neck muscles are extra developed to power the rapid pecking motion, while their beaks and skulls are designed to redistribute the impact through the rest of their body so that they don’t get head injuries.

It wasn’t until recently that researchers unraveled the mystery of how woodpeckers managed to peck up to 12000 times a day without injuring themselves. Their small skulls sometimes absorb 1400 times the force of gravity (1400g) with each peck.

Bearing in mind that a 60 to 100g impact would concuss a human, it’s quite a marvel that woodpeckers put themselves through over ten times worse than all day long!

How Do Woodpeckers Peck So Fast

Woodpeckers’ strong neck muscles power up to 12000 pecks a day, at around 20 pecks per second. Aside from being well-developed for extra strength, the pecking muscles have evolved special biochemical pathways for faster movements.

Woodpeckers’ strong tails and feet also give them the extra grip and balance needed to keep stable on the tree while pecking at high speed.

Speed is one thing, but the woodpecker also needs to deal with the impact of all those pecks. Being small and fast does help to reduce the amount of stress transmitted to the brain, but woodpeckers have a few ingenious adaptations to protect their brains and spread the force of impact around the rest of their bodies.

The Skull

Woodpecker brains fit snugly in their skulls, which prevents them from sloshing around during rapid movement. The skull is also specially designed to scatter vibrations away from the point of impact. A dense outer layer protects a more porous inner layer, consisting of staggered plates of bone that work as a shock absorption system.

The Beak

Woodpeckers have sharp, dense beaks with a bit of an overbite. The upper beak juts out a little further than the lower beak, but the lower beak actually has a longer bone. The lower beak ends up absorbing most of the impact of pecking and redistributes it down through the body instead of through the upper beak into the head.

The scaly outer covering of the beak, common to all birds, follows a distinctive wavy pattern in woodpeckers, which also helps dissipate some of the pecking force.

By the time the impact is transferred from the beak to the rest of the head, it is already 2 – 8 times weaker than at the tip of the beak. To stop the beak from wearing out over time, the cells at the tip are continually renewed.

The Hyoid Bone

The hyoid bone holds the tongue in place and allows it to move around. In most birds, it reaches the base of the skull, but in woodpeckers, it carries on wrapping around the back of the skull until it gets all the way back over to between the eyes, acting in a way like a safety belt for the brain!

Author Note: Each time the bird pecks, the tongue begins to extend forward, tightening the flexible hyoid around the cranial bones.

Behavioral Adaptations

Woodpeckers vary their angle very slightly with each peck, spreading the area of impact around a little. They also take frequent breaks to avoid their brains overheating!

Why Woodpeckers Peck

Throughout the year, woodpeckers will use their beaks to drill into decaying wood, searching for larvae and insects to eat. They also hollow out nests in trees in the springtime in the same way.

But what many people don’t realize is that woodpeckers also drum on trees with their beaks instead of singing to communicate with one another, which is when they peck fastest. Although woodpeckers can also produce short vocal sounds, drumming is used particularly in relation to mating and territoriality.

Sapsuckers and Flickers

Sapsuckers and flickers are members of the woodpecker family with specialized feeding habits. While sapsuckers drill holes to get at the plant nectar inside, flickers more often dig their prey out of the ground. Like other woodpeckers, sapsuckers and flickers nest in holes they excavate in trees and drum with their beaks to communicate with other members of their species. Flickers, in particular, are known for seeking out extra noisy surfaces like metal roofs to really get their message out there!

What Woodpeckers Do I Get in My Yard?

There are over 20 species of woodpecker, sapsucker, and flicker in the USA. The species you’re most likely to encounter depends on what area you live in. One of the most widespread species is the Downy Woodpecker, the smallest woodpecker in the USA. The Hairy Woodpecker and the Northern Flicker, which dig for ants in the ground, also have broad ranges.

In the Northern States, the American Three-toed Woodpecker and the Black-Backed Woodpecker are quite common. America’s largest living woodpecker is the Pileated Woodpecker, native across large areas of the central states. This striking bird can excavate with such force that it has been known to break trees in half!

The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker is America’s only migratory woodpecker, spending its winters in the South East and breeding in the North in Summer. Other woodpeckers often found in the South East are the Red-Bellied Woodpecker and the Red-Headed Woodpecker.

The West Coast has the highest diversity of woodpecker species. The Red-Naped Sapsucker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Acorn Woodpecker are among the most common there.

Final Thoughts

The woodpecker is seen as a positive omen in many cultures, and it certainly feels like it when you come across one in your yard! Next time you hear one tapping away at a tree, take a look to see if it’s drilling in for some snacks, getting a nest ready, or just having a chat with some bird nearby! We hope you enjoyed this article on how do woodpeckers peck so fast.