Hard Knocks: Lessons from the woodpecker

Woodpeckers will peck at a tree up to 12,000 times a day. Just one woodpecker peck produces about 15 times the force needed to give a human a concussion.

So, how do woodpeckers bang their heads so much, and so hard, and not come away with brain damage?

Woodpeckers aren’t the only animals that bang their heads. Bighorn sheep run head first at each other at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. The males headbutt like this during mating season - they’ll do it for a couple of hours a day - to establish dominance and access to females. Most species in the animal kingdom that butt heads do it during their mating season. But woodpeckers do it year round to gather food, make nests and attract a mate.

One of the reasons woodpeckers can bang their heads repeatedly and not turn their brains into mush is their amazing body structure or morphology. Their beaks are made of keratin that helps absorb the impact of blows. But the biggest anti-brain trauma feature in the woodpecker is its tongue. Bird tongues are made up of bones, cartilage and muscle. Yes, bones in their tongue!