Brain Soda Podcast - Episode 41 - Pecking Through the DC Universe

Episode Date: December 2, 2023

We're back and ready to talk about the evolution of the DC universe and the Brad's favorite family of birds, woodpeckers!

I'm not a yurka-polygist. Brain soda. It's the Brain Soda Podcast. I, as always, if you're host Kyle, join by my co-host and co-lord, Brad. How's it going? Today. We're gonna be talking about woodpeckers. But first, Brad. Yes. Have you ever just wanted to scream from the rooftops why you think Coke is better than Pepsi? Not really. And when I younger, I was a Pepsi guy. So even more so no I know

You know what? Skinned. No, I really have a hard time as to how I was going to explain out What this segment is other than this is why I like Coke first is Pepsi. But I mean okay you did okay before we start I you did obviously tell me what your subject's gonna be and I see what you're saying but I also think it's not so much a Coke first Pepsi thing it's but I do I do feel like this is a worthwhile segment because I'm going to suggest this brand overall

and the general and I'm gonna kind of speak on why. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to be covering the DC Universe. As a whole or? Essentially, yes. This was kind of structured in my mind as another akin to episode 20, the streaming services episode, a little bit more abstract.

Theoretically, I always kind of call this the great debate, but I mean, it's hard to call it the great debate when like, it's not like you're sitting there with a Marvel t-shirt on. Yes. You know what I mean? Throwing ideas at me. Yeah, I will admit that I am not a fanboy of either, but if I were to say, you know what I mean like throw an ideas at me. Yeah, I will admit that like I am I'm not a fanboy of either But like if I were to say you know if my do I lean one towards the other be Marvel for sure And I think I think the big caveat in the room as well is in the cultural zeitgeist Marvel probably has a lot more cap Shay to be honest, right? Marvel probably has a lot more catch-a to be honest, right? And maybe that's a large part of the reason why. Today I'm kind of trying to explain why most of our ongoing comic book coverage will kind of

seem to have more of a thematic air of DC Comics. And like me as a fan will have more of a thematic air of DC Comics. And like, me as a fan will have more of a knowledge base of DC Comics. And like, that's because that is mine, universe. You know what I mean? Like, but I kind of wanted to explain why. Again, another caveat, I guess, is image and dark horse and valiant boom, dynamite of my IDW the list of amazing

comic book companies goes on and on I feel like anybody can make an argument as to why that would be their favorite place to dedicate what limited comic time they have but today we're gonna be talking about my favorite comic book universe and perhaps more why it is my favorite comic book universe Okay, so like can you boil it down to like a sentence of why you think DC is better than all the other ones or I'm not a sentence, but I definitely have a I think more of a lister call would be a better way to Because I don't think you'd be able to boil anything down into a sentence Let's kind of get into why

And at its core level. I think one of the things that's most appealing to me is it is the originator Right like I was gonna say okay It's almost like when you say coke versus Pepsi. I was gonna say I kind of view DC Morris Coke and Marvel is Pepsi, even though Marvel is bigger. Same. But yeah. So I agree with that. And this is, again, part of the reason why is, in the golden age, Marvel books are not Marvel, but like there's no Marvel Universe at that time. The Atlas or Timelier, whatever. There's some holdovers in that World War II Arab characters created, things like that. But the Marvel Universe is not the Marvel Universe. I could go down the list, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Thanos. I You know what I mean like a number of different characters who are suspiciously

alike And maybe copyright protected akin to DC heroes right like oh there's cross-harvested almost every single one of them isn't there but but pinching the idea and and and working with that. And, and again, I feel like, Stan and Jack sitting in a room figuring things out the Marvel method way that they did and things like that. Like, that is a creative change that sweeps over the entire industry as a whole and comics would not be the same without it, right? Yeah. Maybe it wouldn't exist without it. Oh yeah, for sure. But you have to take the shared

universe stuff that already exists from DC as a company and then change it to the nuclear age, the 60s, civil rights era, like conversation and political tone and environment, and then those changes really make sense. So you know what I mean? Like giving everybody that kind of different feel or personal conflict or whatever it may be really makes those characters like solid or whatever else but like at times there's characters in DC who don't need the nuance or the the conflict internally because like they're a paragon or they're they're like a god and a pampion and you're telling this story about them because like maybe any character could fit into this story as like a as a as a broad structure, right? But this character in this story against this foe of his or DC universe means this particular thing, emotion, theme, etc. Right?

Yeah, and I mean, I don't know. That is the thing. We were kind of talking about this last episode with the Enemorphs. Comics, you can. There is a million and one different ways to do a comic. But I feel like, you know, they do copy each other a lot. But at the end of the day, it's about the gritty details. You know, like, it's same thing with like songs and stuff. You know, like, there's certain chords, like it's played in hundreds of songs, but it's how you express that. And they all have like that four-chord song structure or whatever, right? So, exactly. Yeah. To kind of get into the points, the bullet point reasonings. One of the first, and I think

most important, is that in Kate books, one of the things you find that permeates our legacy characters. So like, here's the original flash, and then's kid flash and then in 20 years of reading kid flash ends up taking over that mantle for real even if it's only for a limited period of time and that wasn't the case but Things like that originate from the DC universe and also like you'll find within that first iteration during the golden age. So like previous to the 60s relaunch of Flash, Jay Garrick was the Flash, right? Okay. Then the 60s come along in that nuclear age. Again, like we were talking Stan Jack kind of working around the motif of like nuclear power and

science being at the forefront of like where people are getting their powers and things like that. And you get Barry Allen in the middle of a chemical accident hit by a lightning storm and given his powers to the flash as opposed to like whatever it was with Jay Garrick. Barry's flash is more rooted in a science element. He's a forensic scientist and stuff like that for the police. Okay. But you also have things like Hal Jordan. That green lantern in the 60s is rewant.

He's a project pilot, right? For like, Air Force? Like a pilot pilot or like a... Well, yeah, but what it is is like if you have like designer aircraft, like you have a new prototype for a new fighter jet. At the top Air Force gotta conflite anything and yeah, yeah. Exactly, you're right. Pretty much breaking Mach 3 and yeah, yeah, okay. But originally that was Alan Scott, this kind of more mystic character. So like, they themselves will relaunch and have legacy characters that spin off and kind of keep the family around a character prominent

and things like that. But that to me is one of the things I find to be so important is that you're following a large part of like Sequential arts like history just by following DC as a company, right? Yeah, they do it Yeah, because I mean they've been around for so long. You know, like super bad used to fight the Nazis and everything Action number one Action number one predates World War Two, I believe, right? 1938. Yeah, I think it came out like right before, yeah. And it's one of the most important comic books of all. It is the most important comic book of all time

because it creates the entire superhero genre, right? Like Superman as a character permeates American culture and symbolism for decades to come after that. Yeah. You can make arguments about his relevancy and like, that's one of the things that I find so enjoyable at time about Superman books is that like, the story may not even be all that much about what's happening between the characters and the world events that are happening. It's about Superman's relevancy.

Really? It's about how the concepts that Superman stands for as a character are important. What's so funny about True Justice in the American way is, yeah, he's a blue boy scout. Do they, like, does DC, because it is detective comics, right? That's what it stands for. Yes, that's where the naming comes from. Yes. I always feel like, I've read it,

I haven't read any of like the big ones, you know, like the superman's or the Batman's, the Green Lantern's, whatever, you know. But do they have more of like that kind of, I'm assuming that Batman does have like that more like crime scene type thing. Absolutely, the more nor elements. Yeah, versus Wambowl, Pank, you know,

it's more, yeah, less actiony. Well, maybe it does still have action, but yeah. Well, so at the time, at the time, when that, when national publications and things like that, like when those books were coming out, everybody was doing that. You know what I mean? Like maybe kind of more Romancey or sensational books, right? Cowboys,

detectives, sci-fi and things like that. Yeah, detective books were like huge around that time, for sure. Like going for probably 50, 60 years before that too. You know, like Sherlock Holmes and all that, yeah. But two Jewish kids from Cleveland, Schuster and Siegel, they come up with Superman. Finally get it to DC Comics and they end up publishing that first run of action number one and spawn out the whole genre and concept of superhero books, kind of as we know them.

There were pulp heroes. So there was, know them there were pulp here so there was okay I was gonna say there was no heroes like because a superhero is a very special the shadow and the phantom and things like that but they were a bit more pulp I guess if that makes sense you don't know yeah do they didn't have power do they have power really not know you know because that that is crazy to think like someone just thinking of that up, you know, right? Yeah, like before, you know, there would be no reference to it. I'd be like, God's like Godlike powers, you know, they don't reference like religion really. I guess they do eventually, but like, well, and when we talk about DC as a superhero

universe, and I find this to be the only one where it's really applicable and maybe that's why I find such gravitas in these funny books is that it's the closest akin to being a pantheon of gods as comic book superheroes. Yeah, I mean you get the Justice League, you know, the Justice League is kind of like, you know, you have the Avengers right down the road at Marvel, but true, but true, but that's I don't know like I always It's not the same right it doesn't feel the same. It's not no because like you exactly the I always like imagine like the Justice League They're like meeting in like some grand like palace or something, you know How about a watch tower or orbiting the

Plan okay, so that makes sense. How about that Stark stuff on that? All right, see like this thing, I know about the Justice League, I just didn't know where they met. I mean, they've kind of gotten rid of the watch tower and walked back from it, but who the fuck else has got that?

Did the vendors have that? I always feel like there's like me like. They just have to say the media at Stark. It's only Stark's place, okay. Which is like, there's more like corporate, just have to say the media at start it. Yeah, Sony starts place Okay, which is like this more like corporate, you know like I don't know. Oh, yeah Yeah, no. Yeah, Tony's totally funneling backdoor funds to prop the Avengers up in his building Even before there's the Avengers and start towering things like that like you have the fantastic four and fantastic four number one is really kind of like the launch pad For the rest of the marble universe and everybody spins out and is in a whole collective continuity from that book

But like what's the inspiration for For traveling heroes to go into space and all walk away with these different powers. I mean, the Justice League is something that inspired Stan to come up with that concept of the Fantastic Four. Okay. Yeah, because the Fantastic Four. Because four heroes with different powers,

all having to come together and team of things like that, the X-Men, actually is predated by another kind of funky weirdo team in the Doom Patrol. The Doom Patrol? Now which one came to be more successful, I think everybody knows, but... Doom Patrol, for sure. I mean, it is a successful show to an extent on any of you. You don't have to hurt him, it's.

Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, check it out. I mean, in people dig Doom Patrol. It's one of the books that made Grant Morrison. It's always a very weird kind of oddball superhero book, but it is like a well-known and kind of revered book. But like, another thing that I find to be so good about the DC universe is that like it has this kind of compartmentalized element to it where like we were just talking about like if you want to you can go back and you can read gold age. And you can see the JSA green lantern,tern, Allen Scott, J. Garrick Flash.

Like they keep the storylines through all that? They were, well I guess my point is, is that during the golden age, no, things didn't kind of carry on and have a continuity like they did later on. But then like if you only wanted to read the Golden Age, you can do that. And then once you get to the Silver Age and things do have a little bit more continuity and things like that, you can carry that out until you get to like, let's say the Bronze Age. And now you're getting into like the first crisis. And you know what I mean? Like then they relaunch the whole universe. So you could start post-crisis.

And the post-crisis universe is like, really probably some of the most well-known DC stuff between its animated adaptations and things like that. But one of the things that makes me so appreciative as well is the fact that this is the original multiverse. I was gonna say, like, it hasn't always been a multiverse, like from the Vigitgo, or I was gonna say, like, it hasn't always been a multiverse, like from the Vigitgo, or since the Silver Age,

because Barry runs back into, he doesn't even really run back, he vibrates to another dimension in which on Earth too, Jay Garrick, as we knew him as comic book readers, is in a world where those comic books were written and read by Barry as well, but they were actually the events of Earth 2. It laid out to us like with the comic books as a window into those events of that universe. And then that ends up becoming by the time we reach 86 because that's a book from the 60s.

Crisis on Infinite Nurse, we're going, okay. Earth three has like the evil justice league. Earth two is a separate universe where like when Superman was a child, that exists in that. You know what I mean? Like all these different things. And we're gonna collapse the multiverse in and make things a little bit more clean and condensed and streamlined it by restarting our universe here. John Burn, Do Man Esteele, Frank Wheeler,

Go Do, Year One, and then like everything branches off from that as far as our main like understanding of these heroes going forward and then even later than that if you wanted to get into comic books a little bit more recent there's things like the new 52 once that got a little too dark in the publishing line wasn't doing as well as it was before you have rebirth when I jumped back in over the past couple of years, I did it off the back end of dark crisis, which is like the ending of this big Joshua Williamson epic that has been happening since like the 18 team merger and the potential 5G release thing that that was honestly a mistake. And I'm glad didn't pan out the way that they initially attended it to but Joshua Williamson is really

Took in that like potential flop and Marched forward as like the unofficial creative force in the DC universe at the moment So what what does AT&T and 5G have to do with DC? So when AT&T had the rights to DC as a part of a merger with Warner Media, right? Okay, I didn't know that, yeah. They had a, yeah, they had a, this is before the Discovery sale too.

So like, it's crazy that they've had that many hands in the last number of years, but they had an initiative that they were gonna go with publishing initiative that kind of recast the main group of heroes and it was going to be called 5G. And if you're aware at the time, AT&T was hyping up, it's brand new service.

Oh my God. Oh, 5G, right? That's ridiculous. Oh my God. Oh, five G's. That's ridiculous. And of course, when people found out about this, there was like a bit of a f*** uproar. And what were their superpowers, they like, mind controlled people with like chips? Or like they did go through with some of this

because like, you have your floor, the more Hispanic, Latin, Latin based Amazonian Wonder Woman character, right? You have... Well, that means that makes sense. Well, I don't know, because the Amazonians are based off of, you know, like we said, in many times, but go ahead. Well, right.

That is true, right? But Yoraflore and 5G may have just been the new Wonder Woman as opposed to a New Themyscheer and character who like taz the mantle Into legacy characters like we mentioned before yeah, I green lanterns. They pass off or a family gets added to you know what I mean But but yeah, so that Batman was Then not replaced, but you had a black Batman. You had things like that.

And I think some people were just afraid, the woke train in the culture war. You know what I mean? Just upset that some of your favorite characters may have been a different ethnicity for a year or two. Well, yeah, because I mean, yeah, comics are gonna, comics go across, because I mean, yeah, comics are going to, comics go across, you know, all I'll see, you know,

and like, you know, some people are going to like certain things. You know, if things aren't presented exactly the way they want to see it, they can't just realize that like, like all things with comic books, like we did talk about in episode 40, you can do whatever you need to do outside of it. And it's good that you're thinking outside of the box. But by the end, people are going to want to pick up a Superman book and just have straightforward Superman. So we put it back in the box. Maybe there's some leftover things that we've changed, but for the most part,

so people can return back to the status quo and we go forward from there, right? But, aside being the original multiverse and aside being like the company that really is the forerunner for legacy characters and families of characters, One of the things that I find to be so important about this is if Cape Books aren't really your bag either, baby, you can always go to the old vertigo because this imprint of DC Combooks has released some of the most important books of its time. Yeah, things like Sandman, preacher, V for Vendetta, watchman, fables, and Hellblazer, the John of Constantine books. Okay, enough of you, those. Yeah. Some of the the most highly regarded critical works within comic books as a medium have come from Vertigo. It's a shame that DC kind of folded up the

imprint. Oh, okay. But at the time for decades, this went on to launch some of the most like went on to launch some of the most like, probably narratively challenging, and critically acclaimed titles of the time, and maybe of all time to be perfectly honest. Yeah, no, definitely like, I mean, ViproVendetta, for sure. It's like, and Watchmen, like those are like two of the craziest stuff. And the characters, even the creators that come out of that British invasion, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison,

just right there. I mean Keith Giffin, there's tons. They were all pretty much DC exclusive talent for a long period of time and they've all wrote some of the most influential comic book works. You may or may not have seemed adapted into something very recently. Grand Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, yeah. like Grand Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore. Yeah. And all of them have done very important DC comic book work and very important a vertigo work. So even if capes are a figure thing, you would be handing DC money to Reed Sandman,

which is actually happening within the DC Universe and things like that. Like Sandman happens in the confines of the DC universe as a whole. We have, man, like, I don't know. I do gotta check out some DC comics because I'm running any comics for a while, but I'll check out a Superman or Batman one. Probably a Batman one. Just read through, like, maybe one of the the silver age ones. I, you know, for me, the post crisis stuff is really where it's at. The new 52 stuff with Scott Snyder was outchecking out. To me, I think one of the important things to get across here is you got just the gamut

of different things that you can go through with so many of these different heroes and runs. Again, this is something that kind of comes with comic books hand in hand, but it's in this universe where like I can read a Superman book that like I did recently you have Superman 4 all seasons where like Tim Sails art is kind of directed off of an inspired by Norman Rockwell. You could read a Superman story that's more based along like a moral code or the happenings of the comic book industry like Kingdom Come.

You know what I mean? Like there's just so many different aspects. There's like a lot of, yeah. Yeah, and iterations and things like that. The Elts world's line was recently returning, made it really easy to just go, hey, you have like two issues worth of material to throw in and give me an alternate universe Batman.

Okay, here's Batmanverse, pretty much Jack the Ripper, golfing by gas like, go, you know what I mean? Like, just different cool, fun ideas. And I'm kind of excited to see what will happen when Elseworlds comes back. DC Comics, I think creatively is really kind of hitting a stride. Right now there's the dawn of DC kind of universe,

expanding event that seems to be focused a lot on Veraniac. And, you know, I've really been finding it to be enjoyable. It's kind of headlined by Joshua Williamson Superman and anything I encourage you to check out because there's so much out there. Would you say they're like worldwide spending or like they go, well, it's the DC universe. So they're obviously expanding the world. Multiverse spanning. Yeah. Yeah. Well, woodpeckers don't span the multiverse,

but you know, they are worldwide spanning though. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been like some orphan child that Batman's like, oh, you're your woodpecker now. Yeah, that is weird. There's no woodpecker like Billon or so. Like that'd be a perfect one too. It really would be. You might have to tell us all about it.

I will. So let's get into it. All right, so, footpeckers, what do you know about them, Kyle? Like, do you know at least like what woodpeckers are in our state at least? Or do you know the species names or anything like that? I think I, you've told me, it's like a pleated one, right? Like, it's got a special frill on the knackers.

The peoleated? Yeah, well, that's the biggest one, yeah. Oh, that's like the Woody Wood pleated one, right? Like it's got a special frill on the knackers. The piliated? Yeah. Well, that's the biggest one. Yeah. That's like the Woody Woodpecker one. If you know Woody Woodpecker might be dating ourselves here, right? Right, with the body and the red hat, right?

Yeah, I mean, the two biggest ones, I guess, that you would see really though, are the downy and the hairy, at like bird feeders and stuff. Okay. Yeah. But there's actually like 180 recognized species of woodpeckers in the world, and 240 of their family, which is Piccaday.

And that includes like piculettes and rhinets and sap suckers. So there's like, they're very widespread, you know, but honestly, like that's not that many species of a bird's, I don't think. Well, right, because we were talking about about in that one episode you were saying, just like, oh, this one's got blue feet. Is it really that different of a bird?

Exactly. It's enough that it might have a different name now. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, species, when you get down to it, it's really hard to identify what a species really is. But anyways, yeah, they're very close related to two cans and honey guides though, which it was kind of weird. Yeah, I think two cans are like, you know, like, they're big. Yeah, yeah, and then what's the other one? Honey guides, which I think I'm not mistaken, they're more like, they're

smaller birds, like I think a Robin size with like, okay, they have like long beaks, but they actually, they're from Africa. I know that because they're called honey guides, because the, the people there have been able to like train them to show the people where honey is, where, you know, like, bees nest are and everything. So, you know, they'll like, they'll call the honey guides in with like a special call the people will, then the birds will like lead them to the nest, the bees nest,

and then the people will take the honey and leave, you know, leave some of it for them and all that, or the bugs even, I think. I don't know exactly. Oh, yeah, I mean, but still, like, I'm looking at it right now. Yeah, and there's this little like, not a shrew looking bird, but it's like, it's a smaller bird, yeah. But it has like a long beak. Yeah, I think, yeah, yeah.

But it's crazy to have, it's a symbiotic relationship with humans, you know. But that is a pretty interesting anecdote about that bird. Sure. But those are just relatives of. Yes, they're just relatives, but I mean, yeah, this, honey guides are really cool.

That is pretty cool. Yeah, but of the woodbackers though, 20 species right now are either threatened or endangered. And that's due to have a tat loss and fragmentation, kind of like what we were talking about in the mangroves app. So like that deforestation, that really screws up populations of those birds and everything.

Oh, God, I'm sure. I mean, that's got to be like one of the leading things in dangering birds, right? It's just, yeah, but lack of trees. Yeah, exactly. Places to adequately house, you know, horror birds. Yeah, I mean, because if you got to think, like, there's these birds that live these giant forests and then they cut down those forests. So like, where are they going to they gonna go? You know like they've always lived this specific species lived in this specific forest And then you cut that first out. Well that species is gonna be gone. I Mean one such species is the permutaflicker And then I already went extinct and there's two other that have likely are gone like just like recently

You know that have one extinct like within the just like recently, you know, that have won extinct. Like within the last number of years, or within this last calendar year? I don't know exactly when, but yeah, they just still, yeah, the reason being is because most of these woodpeckers are aboreal, which means that they live in trees, right? Like they spend pretty much all their time in trees. Some do live in trees, this area,

like there's some that lives on, it's like sides of mountains or in deserts and stuff like that, where they exploit the cacti, you know, so they're still kind of living in trees, they're just instead of trees. Right, right. But flickers, like that's one that's around here, there's a northern flicker, and that's a ground valley bird. You'll see that sometimes, like on the ground, below feeders and stuff, and that's actually a woodland. Right. Yeah. That's actually a woodpecker. That's interesting. Okay.

Yeah. But so these woodpeckers, like I said at the beginning, they're found worldwide, particularly in South America and Southeast Asia. So like in the tropical regions, right? Okay. All right. The weird thing though is that they're not found in Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and Madagascar.

And then obviously the polar regions too. Right., you would think that with them being most abundant in Southeast Asia, one of the areas they are, they would go over to Australia and stuff. You know, like during the ice age, when that happened, right? But- Is there less like thick foliage trees than like more bushes branch and like? Yeah, there's a lot less forests, I guess,

in Australia. That's very true. Right, I mean, that might be part of it, but like New Zealand and things like that, but then New Zealand has that. You have to cross that. Migratory plane or whatever, it's weird. Yeah.

And they don't do that. It seems like, yeah, they don't like to cross. I mean, I didn't read this, but like, to me, it seems like they don't like to cross, like, oceans, you know, they're not really ocean, crossing birds, you know. But yeah, it's just kind of weird, I thought you know. Well, it's kind of an easy for them to get swept up at, like, you know, if you're crossing over that big, you know, gulf of water, what might pick you up?

Yeah, in Australia, it does have pretty specific stuff, but it still has a lot of the main families of species. Okay. Yeah, one of these days I want to talk about some Australia species lamb. So, like their name implies, they peck wood. Right, they're woodpeckers. And this is usually done to forge for insects

in larvae under the bark of the trees. And they also drum on the trees though to communicate, like they're calling the like call and then drum or like just use drumming solely to call it for mates and stuff like that. When you're in the forest and you're just walking through on a trail, you can hear a woodpecker from like pretty far distance,

just from drumming on that. We know it's someone banging on a piece of wood or something banging on a piece of wood. And that is so important for those forest too though, because those things, like, they make nest in the wood obviously, the woodpeckers do, they drill holes in it,

and then after they're done with that particular tree, they leave, and other animals can get in their other cavity dwelling birds, or even mammals, and things like like that go into those cavities Right, right. Okay. Yeah, they're kind of like I mean, they're almost a little bit like beavers Which I definitely talk about beavers one of these days. Yeah, they kind of like shape the forest their forest shapers You know, right? I mean for real though, you know what I mean like what what other animal in on that scale can like effectively what other animal in on that scale can like effectively

change the culture and ecosystem to like now more things can house in these trees because woodpeckers are going through them. And yeah, obviously most of these birds, these woodpeckers are insectivores. I mean, they eat insects because that's the other way to get the insects. But there is some that vary their diet with fruits and saps and bird eggs and even small mammals sometimes. Oh wow. And a small animal, I guess. But yeah. But still, yeah, I mean, it's not something that you would

think of being like a carnivorous bird and again, beyond like an insect. Yeah. Piccaday is kind of like the woodpecker family. Think of it as that. So they're kind of all like called woodpeckers, but the piquilettes, it's a small sum. And it's this little barbreasted bird. And it's like, it's called the barbreasted piquilette. That's right.

It's, it's, it's, it's about three inches big or like 7.5 centimeters. And it only weighs like a third of an ounce or 8.9 grams like 9 grams. Yeah it's a little tiny bird right but the largest of them today at least there was some bigger ones that are not extinct but the largest of them is the great slady woodpecker and my auto corrected not like the word slady. Yeah it was being really salty about the word but real shady about it. Yeah, exactly. But it weighs it weighs around like 15 ounces or 4 to 30 grams and measures up to like 22 inches or 55

centimeters. So like this is a big bird, right? Yeah, it'll honk in the air. It'll all trunk. Yeah. Yeah, that probably eats some, you know, some smaller. Yeah, right. The coloring of the Verdes range, they're pretty much... Most of them, they're either inkinspicuous, or they're like drab, like browns and greens, or they kind of blend into the foliage, or they're like very brilliant, with a lot of black and white and red,

at least in North America. Like every one of them, I think, if I'm not mistaken, literally every single one of the species in think if I'm not mistaken, literally every single one of the species in Michigan, except maybe the Northern Flickr is a variation of black white red with like other colors sprinkled in. That's interesting though, like so they keep a certain color pattern, particularly. Yeah, and I don't know why that is. Maybe because it's like the woods or the...

Are many birds families that do that? Oh yeah, definitely. Well, kind of. I mean, it depends on what they're niches, which is probably because of the trunks. Black and white will probably be pretty good on a trunk. Yeah. But they're usually sexually dimorphic, which means that they look different like the male and female do, but not as extreme as other birds. Like the sunbirds are obviously like ones like usually the male is all crazy.

Looking at the female looks like some drab bird, but they are usually sexually dimorphic by like little different cues. That's like if you're a bird or you know that's like you got to know what a male and a female bird looks like because the females are usually a lot harder to identify. And one cool thing about, and there's been a couple cool things, we're going to get into these, like, what makes woodpeckers really interesting about birds. Yeah, one thing to, like, about them is they have what is called a zygodactyl feet. And that's where they're, they have four toes, right? And they're first and they're fourth, point backwards,

and they're second and they're third, point forwards. So like, think of like, they're like a claw machine almost, right? Like, yes, exactly. Okay. And that, think how that would help them climb up and down trunks, right? Like, they're not gonna have just the four claws.

They can go up and down with that by how, you know, they grip with their toes and everything. So, beyond that, what's another big, like, differing aspect is to like, would set them apart, like, well, okay, the obvious thing, right? They're woodpeckers, right? So, like, think about peckin wood.

Right. Just smashing your face into some wood. Just think about that for a second. I was gonna say so like, that beak has to be insane too. Yes, the beak is definitely insane. And they're head, man. Yeah, the neck. Yeah, the neck, the head, all of it. Right. So the beak is made up of three layers. There's this tough outer sheath made of scales of keratin proteins called ramfoteca.

And like, so that's like this hard outer shell, right? Right, we know keratin is like nail like strengthening, yep. Yeah, it's your fingernails, yep, and all that in horns and stuff like that, you know. And then there's this porous middle layer, though, it's a layer of bone, but it that in horns and stuff like that, you know, and then there's a spores middle layer though of It's it's a layer of bone, but it connects the inner and outer Right, and like that porousness kind of asks like there's a cushion, you know if you kind of think about it and then the inner layer It's it has this large cavity and it's made of collagen fibers that are mineralized

So like the collagen kind of like acts as a very like rigid support that are mineralized. So like the collagen kind of like acts as a very like rigid support, but you know it also is kind of flexible too. You know like collagen is in a lot of our skin and all that. Right. Okay. And with those three layers combined, it's able to reduce the stress of the bird's beak because like when they're dropped, you know, like, yeah, yeah, to not break their beak itself, you know, like that's a lot of force, right? Yeah, it would make sense to the cause of like, it's kind of like a more malleable, softer material and things like that. So right, the rigidness in the first layer really kind of allows for it to like penetrate the second one kind of keeps it all together. And the

third one's allows for a little bit more like, not movement, but you know what I mean? Like it allows that palette to like actually exist and not be like damage for a spread. Like a storm, right? Yeah, exactly. Like softens the flow. Yeah. Interesting.

Exactly. Yeah, and it's like obviously super sharp, you know, like their beaks are always like, they're pointed. Right, yeah. You know, they have like a very, like a nail almost. They look like nails, you know, like I just, I love the way woodpeckers look.

Like the piliated, look them up. It's kind of a weird looking bird, a little, like I just I love the way woodpeckers look like the Peleated look them up. It's it's kind of a weird looking bird a little bit because that's fine They made wooden with a car, but it is a cool and the way it flies man. It just looks like a dinosaur. It looks like a dinosaur But Let me ask you this are these are aggressive no no, they're not but there's still more there's still more crazy things about them I mean I guess they could be aggressive, but that's not something, they're still more crazy things about them. I mean, I guess they could be aggressive, but that's not something that like sticks out about them. I do love that like blood streak

that it looks like on the side of his face, like he's just been like. Yeah, the pilliated. Yeah, yeah, it is, it's a cool, yeah, it's a big bird too, man. Think of it like, it's like the size of a duck. You're not sick of visiting off with that black line of size.

A little bit. It's pretty metal. It is, yeah. It's pretty metal size of a duck. It's like a visit off of that black line of knives. A little bit. It's pretty metal. It is, yeah. It's pretty metal, I dig it. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, and they always fly through like big tree stands. You know, so like, yeah, it's cool I should fly through. And like I said, they're about the size of like a duck.

You know, so like. 16 and 19 inches, yeah. Yeah, they're pretty big. But, so their tongues though, right? On woodpeckers in general. It's very sticky tongue. You know, you gotta think like they're like sticking that tongue in. You know, those larvae, insects and all that, right?

Now is it like the hummingbird where it's just rap and fire like a machine gun? Like, what? I don't think so. I think I've seen like videos like nature. Okay. We're like, you know, like kind of comes in like swirls around and it's just like you know, looking for. So it's right.

It's more about mobility than it is about like speed. Exactly. Yeah, but also though, the tongue bone, also called the high old bone, this thing is crazy. It starts, it starts above the woodpeckers beak, right? Like above it's right nostril. And it wraps up and around its skull. So up, you know, it goes up and around its skull. And back down through a specialized hole in its spine, and then up, you know, out, into its throat, a specialized hole in its spine. And then up you know out oh what into it's throw a specialized hole at its spine and then you know out out you know to connect to the tongue why

it's fine what I mean you know just it wraps around its entire head you know it's just like lodges back there yeah it wraps around its whole skull you know the bone yeah it says it's a bone, but like I don't understand this thing Yeah, I know neither but it's the tongue bone, I guess but like I'm like this is the craziest thing about what others that it's like It's like the seat belt. It's a seat belt for their head because like think about it pecking. Oh my god Right, it just parks up in there and yeah, exactly. And like, it's spit, like, they're brain, you know, cause you gotta think they're brain man, they're, you're packing back a fourth man.

You're brain's rattlein'. Right. But they're actually have like specialized brains, obviously they need to. Like it's relatively small and smooth, which you know, like that tends to lend to not specialized, you know, intelligence, but like they aren't pretty smart birds, I think.

But anyways, they're also is like a narrow subdural space, which is like the area between the brain and the skull, right? Right, okay. And because of that, there's less cerebral spinal fluid, so like there's not much, like, like we have like our brains are like floating around or up in our skulls, right? Like there's this kind of like really tight inside

of their skull, right? Well yeah, and you wouldn't want a bunch of room for like movement like that. You know what I mean? Exactly. Because you don't want your brain smacking back and forth. Yeah. Oh my god. Could you imagine? Yeah. And like their skull is like maximized for contact, right? Like they're the brain and skull. Like especially in the front and the front of the skulls like it has extra padding You know, it's more cushy stuff like that Pretty much yeah, like yeah, it's crazy like they're extremely specialized so they have to be man They're like they're pecking into this hardwood

Okay, here's an interesting one. How many pecs a day for the average woodpecker like a million? I have no clue right. I mean, but that's a good question. Like a hundred thousand minimum probably. Well, probably thousands, yeah, definitely thousands. Right, yeah, this is a sand bro. Yeah, you have to have a specialized. Even if they're not like big drilling pecking, you know, yeah. Yeah, because I see, you know, a lot of times you'll see them

in the kind of like peck, peck, they'll like test out the wood to hear like, you know, how they raise theirself. Yeah, like that one like density and like that. Like, how far do my brain have to go with this thing? Is there even anything in it? Right. Yeah. That makes sense.

Yeah. You see him hopping up and down the trunks and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. But they they have done those computer simulations on like the forces. And it's been shown that 99.7% of the energy generated from the pecking is distributed throughout the body. Right.

It's all shock absorption. To say. Yeah. A very small fraction goes to the brain. It doesn't even really affect the brain because of all the different, the bone seat belt, the tongue bone seat belt, the thicker brain. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Because it's probably another embrace to, another impact reduction to have their tongue laid up like that or whatever else until they're ready to kind of probe around and find food. But yeah, like that is, that is awesome. And again, it's one of those things of evolution to show like how many birds that probably died off millions of years ago, that like did something a similar, but couldn't do it for a long but like

generated on to being something like the woodpecker. Well, they probably they just could have do it as efficiently, you know, and like, right, yeah, that's true, right? And I bet the way I didn't look up the evolution of this bone, but I do know that like our ears and our mouths are very like strongly connected, you know, so I bet it's

somehow like evolved, you know, from the ear and they moved up into the front of the face, yeah, evolution is very weird. Yeah, but their eyes, uh, I guess not their ears, but other parts of their eyes speak in other parts, um, they have like special membranes that like shield their eyes when they're pecking, as well as like little slits in their nostrils, that are also covered by specialized feathers. So they're just completely deaf. They're just ready to dive right in, girl. Exactly, right?

Yeah, they are. Well, that's why, I think when most people hear about woodpeckers, they're just like, oh yeah, just some bird that packs that wood, but they're super crazy. Well, they probably find it to be a nuisance in some sex because they're like, Yeah, they are. They are nuicesses big time with people with wooden houses.

Oh my god. Yeah, I didn't even think about it. Yeah, and like they make noise. Yeah, but even just if you live nearby, right? Exactly. But if you do want to see them, put suing up. You know, that's what they like. They like to sue it.

Oh, okay. So yeah, well, they like insects, you know, like, yeah, so. Right. Yeah, you know, like, yeah, so. Right, yeah, yeah. But yeah, you know, that's, that's woodpecker. So I just, I love to share that, you know, get into some biology stuff every now and then, you know, I feel like I don't do enough when that's what I went to school for.

But you know what, and I feel like for the rest of us who, like, you know, you kind of touch it, and then you put it back down. It's always a nice little refresher to go back and hear you know what i mean like you kind of take it for granted unfortunately but then you hear the the breakdown of it it's like yeah i do this thing is what you know what i mean it's just something i appreciate to kind of be reminded of the take a second to stop and look at the birds for sure like because it is crazy and with that we think it'd be really cool If you were to give us a rate or view on your podcast platform wherever you decide to listen to us out Let us know how you feel about it with a rate of review. We'd really appreciate it

It's helps us to find new listeners and let's everybody know how much you enjoy the show Definitely. Yeah, we would really appreciate it guys. And you know, all the listeners, thanks for coming back and listening to us. I think Kyle's all moved in now, so we should be good to go back with our weekly episodes. And I'm ready to keep going, man. And with that, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram,

TikTok, share this episode, let us know what you like, what you love, what you wanna hear more of, what you haven't heard of yet. We will see you here again next week. You can find us on Patreon for early access to these episodes by up to one week for Brad. I am Kyle and we will see you again here soon. See you. Blimey to them. Brain soda. Brain soda.