Rufous Woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus)

About the 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.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 129 recordings for this species: 11 CC BY-NC-SA · 2 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Other birds you can hear here
- Ashy DrongoDicrurus leucophaeusrecording
- Asian KoelEudynamys scolopaceusrecording
- Banded Bay CuckooCacomantis sonneratiirecording
- Barn SwallowHirundo rusticarecording
- Black-crowned Night HeronNycticorax nycticoraxrecording
- Black-hooded OrioleOriolus xanthornusrecording
These are the birds recorded alongside it, not close relatives — the site holds no other member of its genus or family yet.