The woodpecker is a fascinating animal.
They repeatedly smashed their beaks against the hard wood so hard and violently that they were strong enough to cause any animal to concuse.
However, the "bird life" that opens the hanging does not require much explanation.
It is hard to imagine how the woodpecker family acquired such an exaggerated skill over countless years.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > magical shock absorber</h1>
Modern science has shown that the woodpecker does not suffer concussions thanks to its excellent natural shock absorbers.
It protects the brain from damage caused by rapid and repeated shocks.
Woodpeckers have spongy structures that surround the skull around the brain.
These unique spongy bone structures can be fully freely compressed when subjected to external impact forces, and then absorb the energy of the impact.
In addition, the woodpecker's long tongue, which is used for predation, wraps around the periphery of the skull.
When it pecks at wood, the tongue contracts vigorously to maintain the stability of the skull and also mitigates violent shocks from the outside.
And the strong muscles in its neck also absorb the energy shock from the woodpecker to a large extent.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > is it a good bird or a pest bird? </h1>
Previously, some netizens posted some pictures on the Internet: a tree stuffed with acorns by woodpeckers.
In previous textbooks, people have often been taught that woodpeckers are tree doctors, that they eat pests, that protect trees, and are beneficial birds.
However, this picture now seems to tell us that woodpeckers do not care whether trees are dead or alive.
It not only doesn't seem to protect the trees, it also destroys them.
As a result, many netizens have expressed their views: woodpeckers are harmful birds!
This is actually the prejudice of ignorant netizens against woodpeckers: they are actually beneficial birds!
These netizens made a ridiculous mistake: listening to the wind is rain!
Take sporadic examples and generalize them to so-called "universal phenomena".
Moreover, they did not distinguish these individual cases in detail and came to hasty conclusions.
The pictures we see are indeed the behavior of woodpeckers.
It is an acorn woodpecker that lives in the coastal areas and foothills of the U.S. state of Oregon and the southwestern United States.
It's perfectly normal for woodpeckers to make holes in trees, and they peck and build nests to store food.
However, this behavior of theirs does not cause the tree to die.
Moreover, the woodpecker is not an idle nesting demon, and there is no need to worry about the whole forest full of tree holes.
Compared with the "damage" it causes to the trees, its work of destroying tree borers and saving trees is simply not worth mentioning.
In addition, the acorn woodpecker in the picture above makes holes in the tree to store acorns, which is actually mostly done on dead oak.
Even if it is carried out on living oak, the depth of this hole is generally only a very shallow bark range.
It does not pose a threat to the survival of the trees.
However, burrowing on live wood is not a major choice for woodpeckers, whose bark grows and shrinks.
This is very unfavorable for the woodpecker to turn around and take out the acorns.
As a result, they typically only drill thousands of holes in dead bark as winter approaches and push acorns into them.
The holes are just large enough to hold an acorn and don't push too deep into the trunk, making it easier for them to retrieve.
Of course, storing acorns is sometimes very large.
For example, more than 200 kilograms of acorns were found on a trunk the size of a wooden box in Arizona, USA.
Of course, this is not the sole act of an acorn woodpecker.
It's a joint action of many birds.
Since the acorns are stored in shallow holes, they can be easily seen from the outside.
This is likely to attract potential food predators, such as squirrels, so the granary must be protected.
Large granary trees are usually protected by several groups of woodpeckers.
Because they contain enough food (in some cases, up to 50,000 acorns in a single tree).
It is possible to provide food for the whole family during periods of barrenness.
Sometimes, the same granary tree is passed down from generation to generation and can be used to store winter food.
Of course, the granary also needs constant maintenance.
As the acorns dry out and shrink, they are moved to smaller holes, while vacated ones are filled with new stocks.
Otherwise dry acorns could fall out of the now larger holes.
As of now, the acorn woodpecker appears to be the only bird with a concentrated defense of food.