Fun Fact: A woodpecker’s tongue is so long that it wraps around its skull to protect its brain while it is hammering away at a tree or other hard surfaces. This, combined with other factors such as: super strong neck muscles, plates of spongey bone in the skull that act like a football helmet, and a very small amount of cerebrospinal fluid surrounding their brain, all help to stop a woodpecker scrambling its brain while pecking away with a force of over 1000g.