© 2026 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.

Woodpeckers engage their whole bodies to drill wood

A red-bellied woodpecker stands in a tree Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Milford, Ohio. (Joshua A. Bickel/AP)
Joshua A. Bickel/AP
A red-bellied woodpecker stands in a tree Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Milford, Ohio. (Joshua A. Bickel/AP)

Click here for the original audio.

A new study shows how woodpeckers engage muscles throughout their entire bodies and coordinate their breaths, to drill into wood.

In March, Here & Now‘s Scott Tong spoke with Nicholas Antonson, post-doctorate fellow at Brown University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, and lead author of a paper on this research in Experimental Biology.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

Here & Now Newsroom
Thanks to you, WUSF is here — delivering fact-based news and stories that reflect our community.⁠ Your support powers everything we do.