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The tapping of woodpeckers in trees is similar to birdsong and human speech.
It’s not just bird song that is similar to human speech. Recent research shows that so does the distinctive tapping of woodpeckers. What messages do they convey this way?
Anyone who has heard the distinctive clucking of woodpeckers knows that it is different from the sounds made by other birds. It is a loud rattling noise that we tend to associate with machinery rather than nature. It is difficult to find any meaning in it. After all, a woodpecker taps on a tree mainly to get food, right?
Yet researchers from Denmark and the US prove otherwise. In the pages of the scientific journal PLOS Biology, they published a paper showing that woodpeckers use something that even resembles human speech.
Similarity of birdsong and human speech
The similarity of birdsong to our speech has long been known. An amateur naturalist by observation alone is able to understand that, for example, beautifully singing male blackbirds can attract females with their singing in this way. And then let other males know that they are encroaching on already occupied territory. The warning squawking of jays, on the other hand, is a clear signal: “attention, predator!”.
