Some birds sing. Some birds dance. The woodpecker chose aggressive carpentry. Pileated woodpecker (often misheard as “pleated”) are basically the jackhammers of the bird world. They peck wood to find food, mostly insects hiding inside trees, using a combination of powerful anatomy, precise technique, and a lot of head-banging physics. A pileated woodpecker can strike a tree many times per second. They avoid injuring themselves because their skull, neck muscles, and beak are adapted to handle repeated impacts. Their brains are also positioned and supported in ways that reduce stress from those sudden stops. Once they expose a tunnel full of insects, they extend a long, barbed tongue deep into cracks and holes to spear or hook their meal. The tongue can even wrap around the back of its skull when not in use because nature decided, “behind the head is fine.” A perfectly normal solution for a bird that spends its day punching trees. NPS video showing two pileated woodpeckers peck and f...