A woodpecker's brain takes a big hit with every peck, but these birds don't experience brain damage. And NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on a team of scientists who think they have figured out why. JON ...

Woodpeckers are notorious for pecking – or drumming – away at trees in search of food, a mate, and when nesting. But when they turn their attention to pecking your home, it can be frustrating. Aside ...

Woodpeckers, flickers and sapsuckers may be fun for birders to watch but they can be troublesome — pecking holes in dwellings, shredding feeders, enlarging cavities in trees, and driving you to ...

Ever wonder why woodpeckers peck? Or if the holes the birds chisel cause any real harm? To be honest, I had never thought much about woodpeckers until asked these questions. Although the answers on ...

If you’ve ever been camping, or live in tree-dense areas, then you may have heard or seen a woodpecker. These birds love to use their beaks as jackhammers and buzz away at the trunks of trees to ...

How does a small black and white bird, weighing only about an ounce, drive some homeowners around the bend? The culprit — the downy woodpecker — problematically lives up to its name: These diminutive ...

You may hear the neighborhood woodpeckers at work when they’re dining on spiders, grubs, or insects such as ants in the nearest dead tree. But their loud hammering is impossible to miss if they start ...

Dear Readers, One of the most commonly asked questions of this column is how to deal with woodpeckers carving out holes in the siding and trim of wood sided homes. As anyone who has tried to ...

Don't be fooled by that soft-looking down and pretty faces – woodpeckers are tough, tree-pounding beasts who simultaneous harden their whole bodies like a hammer and grunt as they drill away with ...

DEAR JOAN: I have an Eichler house with wide wooden eaves. Woodpeckers are pecking the eaves from underneath, all the way to the top of the roof. The roof is layered with 1½ inches of wood, topped ...

Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or Flash plugin. Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. A woodpecker's brain takes a big hit with ...