Overview
- The Journal of Experimental Biology study shows that coordinated activation across the neck, hip, abdomen, and tail turns downy woodpeckers into rigid, hammer-like systems during drilling and tapping.
- Birds exhale at the instant of contact and take roughly 40-millisecond mini-inhales, sustaining pecking rates of up to 13 strikes per second with remarkably consistent timing.
- The hip flexor and front neck muscles provide the main driving force, while tail and abdominal muscles brace the body to stabilize each impact.
- Researchers captured muscle activity and respiration by implanting electrodes in multiple muscles and measuring airway pressure and syrinx airflow, synchronized with 250-frames-per-second video of eight wild birds.
- Impact magnitudes were reported at roughly 20 to 30 times body weight, with coverage noting decelerations up to about 400g, and the birds increased hip flexor output when drilling harder compared with softer tapping.