Rufous Woodpecker
Micropternus brachyurus
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Cordats)
- ClassAves (Aus)
- OrderPiciformes (Woodpeckers and Allies)
- FamilyPicidae (Woodpeckers)
- GenusMicropternus
- SpeciesMicropternus brachyurus (Rufous Woodpecker)
The rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus) is a medium-sized brown woodpecker native to South and Southeast Asia. It is short-billed, foraging in pairs on small insects, particularly ants and termites, in scrub, evergreen, and deciduous forests and is noted for building its nest within the carton nests of arboreal ants in the genus Crematogaster. It was for sometime placed in the otherwise Neotropical genus Celeus but this has been shown to be a case of evolutionary convergence and molecular phylogenetic studies support its placement in the monotypic genus Micropternus. Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Sinharaja Forest Reserve
Lesser Sri Lanka Flameback
Dinopium psarodes
Lesser Yellownape
Picus chlorolophus
Crimson-backed Flameback
Chrysocolaptes stricklandi
Brown-capped Woodpecker
Yungipicus nanus
Black-rumped Flameback
Dinopium benghalense
Yellow-crowned Woodpecker
Leiopicus mahrattensis
White-naped Woodpecker
Chrysocolaptes festivus
Yellow-fronted Barbet
Psilopogon flavifrons
Crimson-fronted Barbet
Psilopogon rubricapillus
Brown-headed Barbet
Psilopogon zeylanicus
Coppersmith Barbet
Psilopogon haemacephalus
📅 Monthly Probability
Fewer than 5 records of Rufous Woodpecker at Sinharaja Forest Reserve — not enough to chart months honestly.
🌅 When They're Spotted
Most active at dawn and dusk · across all parks (global)
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there