--- title: "Great Spotted Woodpecker: What the taps tell you" description: "A drum roll can be a display. When a Great Spotted Woodpecker strikes wood, high-speed footage shows how its bill and head slow at impact." canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/great-spotted-woodpecker/article published: 2026-11-10T07:16:44.245Z modified: 2026-11-10T07:16:44.245Z lang: en --- # Great Spotted Woodpecker: What the taps tell you A drum roll can be a display. When a Great Spotted Woodpecker strikes wood, high-speed footage shows how its bill and head slow at impact. A burst of taps can be a display\. If you can see the bird from where you stand, watch where its bill lands and what it does between bursts\. The sound can direct your attention to a trunk, but it cannot tell you by itself what the bird is doing\. ## When a roll is a signal The [British Trust for Ornithology]() describes drumming as a display in the Great Spotted Woodpecker\. The bird also pecks at wood in other contexts\. It can work at bark for insects or [dig a nest hole]()\. If the bird pauses to probe under a piece of bark, that action gives you more to go on than the volume of the tapping\. A burst you hear from behind the trunk may leave both the bird and its purpose uncertain\. ## What the camera saw at impact In [a 2022 study](), researchers filmed 109 strikes by six woodpeckers in aviaries\. Two were Great Spotted Woodpeckers\. The team used a point on the eye to estimate how the front of the braincase moved and compared it with points on the bill\. A shock absorber between the bill and braincase would make the head slow down less sharply than the bill\. In one Great Spotted Woodpecker, the study found no clear difference in peak slowing between those points\. In the other, the point on the eye slowed more sharply than the bill\. Neither bird showed the reduction that the researchers expected from a shock absorber\. During those strikes, the head behaved more like a stiff hammer\. The team also modeled a Black Woodpecker\. At the same strike speed, a more flexible connection let its modeled bill penetrate less deeply\. That helps explain why a stiff head can be useful for working wood\. The footage tracked movement outside the head\. It did not measure damage to brain tissue or settle what repeated impacts do over a lifetime\. ![Black and white Great Spotted Woodpecker with a red nape patch, held in a hand\.]() The open bill and red patch behind the head are visible in this catalogue photo\. The bird is being held; watch wild birds from a distance\. [Francesco Cecere](), [CC0](). [api\.inaturalist\.org](). ## When to mark it as seen The Great Spotted Woodpecker is [Dendrocopos major]()\. If you see the bird, use its markings along with the behavior\. The catalogue photo shows black and white feathers and a red patch behind the head\. If you only hear the tapping, wait for a view before using [Mark as seen on the species page]()\. You can leave the sighting open without approaching the tree\.