News Animals

Woodpecker hammering is a full-body affair

Muscle monitoring and high-speed video show how body and breath team up to exert repeated force

A downy woodpecker (a tiny bird with a white belly and black back), hangs off of a small branch, presumably while hammering at it.

At just 25 grams, downy woodpeckers can exert forces of 20 to 30 times their body weight — an extreme feat achieved by intricate coordination across multiple systems.

NPS | N. Lewis

By Anna Gibbs

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

Hidden beneath all their rum-pum-pumming, woodpeckers are quietly grunt-grunt-grunting.