Woodpecker

Few birds are as easy to recognise as the woodpecker. With its distinctive way of pecking at tree trunks, it can be heard clearly in the forest. A woodpecker can peck up to 20 times per second. To be able to do this without hurting its head, it has a strong neck, an extra thick skull, and a beak that acts as a shock absorber.

It pecks partly to find food and partly to build its nest. The woodpecker looks for insects and larvae that live in trees. Thanks to its long, sticky tongue, it can catch insects deep inside the wood of the tree. But the woodpecker is also a bird of prey that can take other birds’ chicks.  When it pecks a hole in a tree, it is to build a nest, where it lives with its family for a year.  After that, it moves on, and other birds, bats, or squirrels that cannot peck as well move in.

The woodpecker is a smart bird and also likes to eat pine cone seeds. To do this, it pecks a hole in a tree, flies away, fetches a cone, and puts it in the hole like a cork. Then it can peck away at the seeds in peace.