Wood is tough stuff, which is why we use it to hold up houses and trees use it to hold up themselves.
If you've ever swung an axe against a tree, you know chipping away wood takes a lot of force.
Now imagine chipping away that wood with your face.
That's what it's like to be a woodpecker.
Hammering a tree, 20 times a second, ten thousand times a day… face-first.
The force of a peck is like as headbutting a tree at full sprint, which you should not try at home.
So why don't woodpeckers get concussions?
And if they did, what would they see flying around their head?
They say it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end.
Anyone who's ever watched a crash test video knows that when the car stops moving, the bodies inside it don't.
