Have you ever heard someone say that something has “gone the way of the dodo”? That phrase means disappeared or is extinct. No one has seen the peculiar dodo bird for almost 400 years! It’s good and gone.

Once upon a time, ivorybills soared over tree canopies in the U.S. Southeast and in Cuba. Have they—like the passenger pigeon and the Carolina parakeet— “gone the way of the dodo” too?

Birds of a Feather

If they have, that’s a loss. It’s always sad when a creature God made disappears from the planet. But many other types of woodpeckers remain. Over 180 woodpecker species live all over the world. (Well, everywhere except Antarctica and Australia.) Some woodpeckers are just over three inches long. Some measure longer than two feet. Some stash hundreds of acorns in tree trunks. Most live in forests, but some live in savannas. And all have a few characteristics in common:

Pecking! Do you see God’s fingerprint in the woodpecker’s design? He made the bird perfectly suited to eat pests from trees. Woodpeckers peck to extract tasty grubs and bugs from tree bark. The woodpecker’s stiff tail helps it balance while it hangs from the side of a tree pecking. The more bugs it eats, the healthier the tree becomes.

Super tongue. Believe it or not, the woodpecker’s ultra-long tongue wraps around its brain. This gives its brain extra cushion for all that pecking—kind of like a bike helmet!

Speedy! Woodpeckers can peck 20 times per second. How many times can you thrust your head forward in a single tick? (But be careful! We don’t want you to need a helmet too!)