CreatureData

Rufous woodpecker

Micropternus brachyurus (Vieillot, 1818)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus) is a species in the family Picidae, order Piciformes. Recorded adults weigh 70 g to 88.4 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus)
Photo: Prajwalkm · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the rufous woodpecker

Weight
70 g – 88.4 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
13 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
2.7src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Photos of the rufous woodpecker

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

Rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus)
Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Where does the rufous woodpecker live?

Not recorded

What is the rufous woodpecker?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

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.

From the Wikipedia article “Rufous woodpecker” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rufous_woodpecker&oldid=1352132702), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the rufous woodpecker endangered?

The rufous woodpecker is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the rufous woodpecker classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPiciformes
  5. familyPicidae
  6. genusMicropternus
  7. SpeciesMicropternus brachyurus (Vieillot, 1818)

Synonyms Celeus brachyurus, Micropterus brachyurus, Picus brachyurus

Other names and names in other languages (51)
  • نقار الخشب الأصهبArabic
  • খয়েরি কাঠঠোকরা (Khoẏeri kāṭhṭhokrā)Bangla
  • picot rogencCatalan
  • datel rezavýCzech
  • RustspætteDanish
  • Rustfarvet SpætteDanish
  • RostspechtGerman
  • AmeisenspechtGerman
  • RötelspechtGerman
  • rufa pegoEsperanto
  • Carpintero rufoSpanish
  • sipelgarähnEstonian
  • aasiantöyhtötikkaFinnish
  • Pic brunFrench
  • રાતુડી લાકડખોદ (Rātuḍī lākaḍkhōd)Gujarati
  • लाल-भूरा कठफोड़वा (Lāl-bhūrā kaṭhphoṛvā)Hindi
  • pjegavogrla žunaCroatian
  • Pelatuk kijangIndonesian
  • Picchio rossiccioItalian
  • クリチャゲラJapanese
  • ಕೆಂಪು ಮರಕುಟ್ಟಿಗ (Kempu marakuṭṭiga)Kannada
  • rusvasis kuoduotasis genysLithuanian
  • ചെമ്പൻ മരംകൊത്തിMalayalam
  • ചെമ്പൻ മരംകൊത്തി (Chempan maramkothi)Malayalam
  • तपकिरी सुतार (Tapkirī sutār)Marathi
  • Burung Belatuk Biji NangkaMalay
  • သစ်တောက်နီBurmese
  • सानो तामे लाहाँचेNepali
  • सानो तामे लाहाँचे (Sāno tāmē lāhām̐cē)Nepali
  • Rosse SpechtDutch
  • maurspettNorwegian
  • ਲਾਲ ਰੰਗ ਦਾ ਕਾਠ ਕੋਢ਼ਾ (Lāl raṅg dā kāṭh kōṛhā)Punjabi
  • rdzawodrwalPolish
  • مائکروپٹیرنس براچیوریسWestern Panjabi
  • pica-pau-ruivoPortuguese
  • pica-pau-ferrugíneoPortuguese
  • Рыжий дятелRussian
  • अरुणदारुतुण्डः (Aruṇadārutuṇḍaḥ)Sanskrit
  • vlikáč krátkochvostýSlovak
  • mravcožlna krátkochvostáSlovak
  • Kratkorepi crveni detlićSerbian
  • rostspettSwedish
  • செம்பழுப்பு மரங்கொத்தி (Cempapu maraṅkotti)Tamil
  • తామర రంగు వడ్రంగిపిట్ట (Tāmara raṅgu vaḍraṅgipiṭṭa)Telugu
  • นกหัวขวานสีตาลThai
  • Kızıl AğaçkakanTurkish
  • ятла рудаUkrainian
  • Gõ kiến nâuVietnamese
  • 栗啄木Chinese
  • 栗啄木鳥Chinese
  • 栗啄木鸟Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the rufous woodpecker

Other species in the same family Picidae.

CompareRufous woodpecker vs Great spotted woodpeckerRufous woodpecker vs Black woodpeckerRufous woodpecker vs Eurasian wryneckRufous woodpecker vs Eurasian green woodpecker

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the rufous woodpecker?

An adult rufous woodpecker weighs 70 g – 88.4 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the rufous woodpecker endangered?

The rufous woodpecker is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the rufous woodpecker?

The rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus) belongs to the family Picidae in the order Piciformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/rufous-woodpecker

MLA

“Rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/rufous-woodpecker.

BibTeX
@misc{rufous_woodpecker_2026,
  title = {Rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/rufous-woodpecker},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}