Have you ever bumped heads with another person or hit your head against something and it takes a couple minutes or more for your head to stop pounding? So this being true, why don’t woodpeckers get headaches? After all, they are bashing their heads against a tree hundreds of times a minute, how are they able to do this?

In order to figure this all out, a team of scientists conducted an experiment with two types of birds; one being the Great Spotted Woodpecker and the Eurasian Hoope. The Eurasian Hoope is not a type of woodpecker, but it does peck its beak against materials like soil. The reasoning for comparing the two is comparing soil pecking behavior to wood pecking behavior. The first step in the experiment is to watch the birds peck at a much slower rate. The scientists constructed a metal cage, one for each bird, with high-speed cameras that the scientists view the birds in slow motion. In order to see how hard the birds were hitting the cage, there was a force censor. With this information, they were able to figure out why woodpeckers are able to do this without dying from multiple concussions.

The next step was to use a special technology called a Micro-CT. A Micro-CT is essentially just a fancy x-ray machine that is used on a desktop computer. The researchers used this solely to see how the skulls of the birds were shaped. Another vital variable in the experiment is to see the strength of the bird’s beaks. If the Hoope has a much more sensitive beak then it would make sense as to why it can not peck at things such as trees. In order to find out this information the scientists used force tests. With the information from the x-ray’s and the force tests, the scientists were able to accurately make a replica of the bird’s skulls. Finally, the scientists used these skulls to smash them using a computer to stimulate the force. Then by examining how the skulls ended up looking, they were able to see how strong the skulls compared. They were right; the woodpeckers were able to protect their birds better than any other birds.

The scientists found several reasons due to the information found from the study that made woodpeckers able to protect their brains better. Woodpeckers move their beaks around when they peck trees. Varying their peckers minimizes brain damage. Woodpeckers have a special bone called the hyoid bone. This bone goes around the entire birds skull and restrains its brain every time is pecks the tree. And finally, these birds have a beak that the upper part is longer and the lower part is stronger that absorb impact the best.

In conclusion, the study finally answer this question that the reason woodpeckers are able to do this behavior is because their skulls are what football helmets are to players, they are able to absorb all kinds of shocks.

Sources:

http://askabiologist.asu.edu/plosable/woodpeckers