“Knock, Knock, Who’s There?”

Have you ever been walking through the woods and heard “knock, knock, knock” echoing through the trees? If so, you probably heard a woodpecker looking for a tasty snack! We were recently eating lunch and heard a loud knock—it was a pileated woodpecker hanging out on a pine tree, looking for his own lunch. Soon he was joined by another woodpecker. We enjoyed watching them!

Can you spot the woodpecker in the video below?

Pileated woodpeckers are black, crow-sized birds with a white stripe running down the side of their head and a bright red mohawk. Males have a red “mustache,” but females don’t. It’s the largest woodpecker in North America and leaves rectangular-shaped holes in dead trees. Carpenter ants (found in the dead trees) make up over half of their diet, but they also eat larvae, termites, berries, nuts, and fruit.

Pileated Woodpecker
Photo by Patrice Bouchard on Unsplash

Woodpeckers are great examples of God’s incredible design of his creation. Woodpeckers get their name from pecking at wood to find insects to eat. But how can they do that without hurting themselves? After all, a hit even a fraction that hard would give humans a concussion, serious brain damage, or death! And yet they can pound away at a tree 18–22 times per second!

God gave woodpeckers a very tough but elastic bill, but that’s not enough to protect their brain (no bird wants their beak being smashed into their face, after all!). So God also equipped this kind with special muscles and tendons that support the head, spongy bone to absorb the shock, and yet another special bone filled with fluid. All of these features work together to ensure a woodpecker can happily peck away with no danger of brain damage.

God’s creation is amazing! Well, we’re off on another adventure. Until next time, remember Romans 1:20, “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

P.S. We’d love to hear from you! Ask your parents to help you contact us at schusoff@answers.tv with any comments or questions you’d like to share.