Why does a woodpecker need a strong beak?

Have you ever knocked on a wooden door? Knock, knock. The wood feels hard on your hand. Out in the forest, one bird knocks on trees all day long.

That bird is the woodpecker. Tap, tap, tap goes its pointy beak against the tree. So why does a woodpecker need such a strong beak?

First of all, the woodpecker is hungry. Its favorite snacks are grubs, which are soft, wiggly baby beetles. Grubs are tasty, filling food for a woodpecker.

But grubs hide deep inside the tree, under the bark. They chew tunnels in the wood and stay there. In there, most birds cannot get to them.

Tree wood is hard, as hard as a wooden table. A woodpecker has no hands to dig with. It has no spoon or shovel either. It has only its beak.

The woodpecker holds on to the tree with its claws. Then it pecks the wood, hard and fast. Each peck hits like a tiny hammer. What do you think happens to the wood with every peck?

Each peck knocks off a tiny bit of wood. We call this chiseling, which means chipping away small bits, one by one. Peck by peck, the woodpecker chisels a hole into the tree.

Hard wood pushes back on the beak with every peck. A soft beak would bend or crack, like a thin twig. The woodpecker's beak is hard and sharp, and it is stronger than the wood. So the wood breaks, and the beak stays whole.

The woodpecker keeps going until its hole reaches the hiding grubs. Its strong beak chisels deep into the hard wood. Now the hungry bird can reach its snack.

Grubs. Chisel. A hungry woodpecker needs a strong beak to chisel hard wood and reach grubs.

Sweet dreams, and rest as snug as a little bird in its nest.