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Date November 6, 2025
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Pecking with power: How tiny woodpeckers deliver devastating strikes to drill into wood

A new study reveals how woodpeckers combine breathing and whole-body coordination to drill into trees with extraordinary force.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — It’s one of nature’s mysteries: How can woodpeckers, the smallest of which weigh less than an ounce, drill permanent holes into massive trees using only their tiny heads? New research shows that there’s much more at play, anatomically: When a woodpecker bores into wood, it uses not only its head but its entire body, as well as its breathing.

In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, a team led by biologists at Brown University reveals how woodpeckers combine breathing and whole-body coordination to drill into trees with extraordinary force. 

“These findings expand our understanding of the links between respiration, muscle physiology and behavior to perform extreme motor feats and meet ecological challenges,” said lead author Nicholas Antonson, a postdoctoral research fellow in ecology, evolution and organismal biology at Brown.

The team studied downy woodpeckers, the smallest species of woodpeckers in North America, which populate forested areas throughout the United States and Canada. Most scientists who investigate woodpecker physiology focus on neck muscles, said study co-author Matthew Fuxjager, a professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology at Brown who has been studying woodpeckers for over a decade.

“We’re left to wonder, where does all the power come from?” Fuxjager said. “Where does the protection come from? Those questions stimulated our study, which took a more whole-body approach.”

In experiments conducted in Fuxjager’s lab, the scientists offered woodpecker study subjects some of their favorite types of wood and then measured the muscles the birds employed while drilling. The team used high-speed video to observe frame-by-frame, every 4 milliseconds, how the birds’ head positioning coordinated with activation of various muscles. They also measured air pressure and airflow in the birds’ airways.

After the woodpeckers were released back into the wilds of Rhode Island, the researchers analyzed the data and made several discoveries. First, they concluded that woodpeckers don’t just use their neck muscles to strike. 

Two Brown biology researchers searching for woodpeckers on campus
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Biology Professor Matthew Fuxjager (in blue) and postdoctoral research fellow Nicholas Antonson (in brown) "recruited" woodpecker research participants from wooded areas near the Brown University campus. Photos by Nicholas Dentamaro.

Brown biology researchers holding a net for woodpecker research
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Brown biology researchers Matthew Fuxjager and Nicholas Antonson use nets to gently catch woodpeckers to be studied in the lab, and then release them back into the wild.

Two Brown biology researchers looking through binoculars
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The team studies downy woodpeckers, the smallest species of woodpeckers in North America, which populate forested areas throughout the United States and Canada.

“They recruit muscles across the head, neck, hips, abdomen and tail,” Antonson said, “essentially using their entire body to forge a coordinated hammer, with the neck stiffening on contact in a similar manner to how human wrists do when swinging a hammer.”

With each full-body hammer strike, Antonson said that woodpeckers actively exhale, similar to how professional tennis players grunt while hitting a powerful backhand.

During rapid tapping, the woodpeckers take “mini-breaths” between strikes. These mini-breaths have previously been described in songbirds during fast trills, Antonson said, but this is the first evidence of a bird using them in non-vocal communication.

The researchers found that the woodpeckers strike with forces up to 20 to 30 times their body weight, synchronizing each peck with a breath at rates up to 13 breaths per second.

Taken together, the results can change how people think about how woodpeckers, and animals in general, use physical displays to communicate, Fuxjager said.

“These displays that involve moving the body, either as a dance, or as a gesture, or even as a vocalization, are a way to convey information to another individual or group,” Fuxjager said. “In the case of woodpeckers pecking, they aren’t just doing a simple thing at an extraordinary speed. They are coordinating all the muscles of their body and their respiratory system to allow them to perform an impressive feat. More than speed, it’s a matter of extraordinary skill.”

The same could be said about humans, Antonson added. 

“When you’re watching someone perform on American Idol, and you’re making judgments on whether they’re a good singer or a bad singer, you’re unconsciously assessing their vocal motor skills, and how they, too, can coordinate their body movement and their breathing to produce a physical display.”

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation (PRFB-2305848, IOS-2423144, DBI-2150328).

In this audio file of breathing data from Antonson and Fuxjager's research with downy woodpeckers, a careful listener can hear birds exhaling during drilling. Video by Anthony Saccoccia/Brown University.

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