Pileated Woodpecker

“Pileated woodpeckers, the largest woodpeckers in North America, hammer their heads into trees with a force of 15 mph, 20 times a second. So how do their heads not turn to mush? Thick muscles, sponge-like bones, and a third eyelid keep bird brains intact. "If you get hit hard in the head, you can break blood vessels behind the eye or traumatize nerves behind eye," said University of California Davis ophthalmologist Ivan Schwab. ‘Seeing patients in car accidents and knowing what woodpeckers do made me wonder why these injuries don't happen in woodpeckers.’

Last fall, Schwab was honored with an Ig Nobel award, the irreverent version of the Nobel Prize, for his research on how woodpeckers avoid headaches, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Along with their straight-as-an-arrow strikes at the tree, which safeguards against head trauma, birds' bodies are designed to absorb the impact. One millisecond before a strike comes across the bill, dense muscles in the neck contract, and the bird closes its thick inner eyelid. Some of the force radiates down the neck muscles and protects the skull from a full blow. A compressible bone in the skull offers cushion, too. Meanwhile, the bird's closed eyelid shields the eye from any pieces of wood bouncing off the tree and holds the eyeball in place. The eyelid acts like a seat belt and keeps the eye from literally popping out of the head," Schwab told LiveScience. "Otherwise, acceleration would tear the retina." The outside portion of the eye itself is firm, filled with blood to support the retina from being jostled around.

Bird brains also remain rigid during head banging. Injuries to the human head make our brains bounce back and forth in the cerebral spinal fluid, bathing the organ, but woodpeckers have virtually none of this fluid. While scientists can't be certain that woodpeckers don't get headaches, Schwab pointed out that the birds are at least very tolerant of headaches.” From Science on NBC News, 1 August 2007.

www.nbcnews.com/id/16531772/ns/technology_and_science-sci...

Photo was taken on 4 December 2014, when I went for a short walk in Fish Creek Park. That week, I was trying to do several short walks to see if it made any difference at all to the level of pain in my back. The weather has been beautiful recently, too – we all know that it is going to change back to “winter” again before too long. Also, a short time in the park can (if you are lucky!) be simply amazing.

I happened to come across this female Pileated Woodpecker near the base of a tree. Almost impossible to get a sharp photo because she just didn’t stop banging her head against the tree. So many photos had to be deleted, ha. While I was trying to catch one split second when the action actually slowed down, a much smaller bird flew over my head and landed on the same tree, about 4’ higher. Could not believe my eyes when I saw that it was a male Black-backed Woodpecker (rare in Alberta, just like the two American Three-toed Woodpeckers that I saw in a different part of the park, on two different days that week). Talk about being lucky!

Later: ha, returned to the same area the next afternoon, thinking it would be nice to try and get some better shots. Well, there was no sign of either species, of course - in fact, very few birds of any kind. I did see a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers high up on two of the tallest trees, and there were a few Chickadees.