Haven't signed into your Scholastic account before?
Teachers, not yet a subscriber?
Subscribers receive access to the website and print magazine.
You are being redirecting to Scholastic's authentication page...
Announcements & Tutorials
Renew Now, Pay Later
Sharing Google Activities
2 min.
Setting Up Student View
Exploring Your Issue
Using Text to Speech
Join Our Facebook Group!
1 min.
Subscriber Only Resources
Access this article and hundreds more like it with a subscription to Science World magazine.
Article Options
Presentation View
Super Beak
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
QUICK PECKS: The black woodpecker is able to strike and remove its beak from wood in the span of 50 milliseconds.
Woodpeckers can hammer their beaks against tree trunks up to 20 times per second. Yet, despite all that rapid drilling, the birds manage to avoid getting their beaks stuck in the wood. To find out how they do this, scientists at the University of Antwerp in Belgium studied high-speed videos of the black woodpecker. They discovered that, as it pecks, the bird moves the top and bottom of its beak independently in opposite directions. “First, the upper beak is removed, creating a bit of free space,” says Sam Van Wassenbergh, a biologist who worked on the study. “Then the woodpecker can pull its bottom beak out with no effort.”
Woodpeckers have unique adaptations that help protect their body as they chisel away at a tree trunk.
KEVIN JONES/DORLING KINDERSLEY
SKULL: is made of spongy bone that cushions and protects the brain from impact
EYES: have a special membrane that protects them from flying splinters and wood dust
NECK MUSCLES: are strong and stiff enough to absorb the shock of each peck
TONGUE: wraps completely around the outside of the skull, providing an additional level of cushioning, and can extend to probe for food inside holes made by the bird
BEAK: is connected to the skull with thick bone to prevent jolts and vibrations