And if there had ever been a time when woodpeckers did not drill holes in trees they would not have needed the shock-absorbers anyway. If the anchor suddenly hopped from the back of the beak up into the right nostril, the tongue would be too short. To look at it from another angle, suppose a bird developed a long tongue anchored in the right nostril, but he did not develop a strong beak, or powerful neck muscles, the shock-absorbers, and so on. On the other hand, suppose a bird developed all that special apparatus needed to drill a hole in a tree, but not the long tongue. He would drill a hole in a tree in anticipation of a meal of insects, but would not be able to reach the insects.
Nothing works here until everything works.
Design is evident in the woodpecker, but the fossil record is another problem for those who believe woodpeckers have evolved. Fossil woodpeckers are virtually unknown, so the alleged gradual development of lower bird life into the more complex woodpecker over many millions of years cannot be traced in the fossil record. Many fossils claimed long ago as early woodpeckers have now been rejected or called into question. The woodpecker must have had all its special designs right from the start to survive all that head-bashing. And this means it must have been created intact, as the Book of Genesis says birds were.