The woodpecker

📖 In short

Tap tap tap! That's the woodpecker hammering a tree trunk with its strong, chisel-like beak. It drills holes in trees to find hidden insects, and builds its nest inside the trunk. Woodpeckers live almost everywhere in the world.

🤩 Did you know?

A woodpecker can hit a tree about 20 times a second.
The black woodpecker is one of Europe's biggest kinds, about 46 centimeters long.
Woodpeckers also drum on trees to send messages to other woodpeckers.
Some big kinds are up to 52 centimeters long.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 A head that doesn't get hurt

A woodpecker hits the tree many times very fast, yet its head doesn't get hurt, because its skull bones are strong and built to absorb the shocks.

🔍 A very long tongue

A woodpecker has a very long sticky tongue with little barbs on the tip, which it pokes into holes to catch grubs and ants inside the wood.

💡 A tail like a chair

A woodpecker's tail feathers are strong and stiff, so it leans on them while clinging to a trunk, as if sitting on a chair, and grips the bark with its sharp toes.