Micropternus brachyurus (Vieillot, 1818)

Taxonomy and Size

The rufous woodpecker (scientific name Micropternus brachyurus (Vieillot, 1818)) is approximately 25 centimeters long.

General Plumage Coloration

It is overall dark brown, with dark bands on the feathers of its wings and tail that create a black-barred appearance. Its head is paler than its darker-shaded underparts.

Bill Morphology

The bill is short, black, slightly curved along the culmen, and narrow at the nostrils.

Tail Morphology and Subspecies Variation

The tail is short and rufous with narrow black bars, but in the subspecies badiosus, the tail is dark with narrow rufous bars. Feather margins are pale in the subspecies squamigularis and annamensis.

Head and Neck Feathering

Feathers on the neck, ears, and lore are unmarked. Males have red-tipped feathers under the eyes, between the eye and ear coverts, and on the malar region, and these red-tipped feathers sometimes form a patch.

Sexual Dimorphism

Females and young woodpeckers do not have red-tipped feathers. The species has a weak but erectile crest.

Throat Plumage Variation

Juveniles typically have streaked throats, and some subspecies also have streaked throat feathers on adults.

External Field Characteristics

In the field, individual birds often look soiled and smell of ant secretions from Crematogaster ants, which is a result of their foraging or nesting activities; Crematogaster ants have a unique spatulate tip to their sting, which they use only to spray fluid forward at intruders from a raised gaster.

Foraging Habitat

In terms of behaviour and ecology, rufous woodpeckers forage in pairs at ant nests located on trees, fallen logs, and dung heaps, as well as on ant and termite hills.

Diet Composition

They have been recorded feeding on ants from the genera Crematogaster and Oecophylla. Besides insects, they have been observed feeding on nectar from flowers of Bombax and Erythrina, and consuming sap from the bases of banana fronds.

Vocalizations

The species' most common call is a sharp nasal three-note keenk-keenk-keenk, but they also produce other calls including a long wicka and a series of wick-wick notes.

Drumming Pattern

They have a distinctive drumming pattern that starts rapidly and then slows in tempo. Drumming takes place year-round, but increases in frequency during winter in southern India, and peaks around March to April in Nepal.

Conspecific Display Behavior

A display of unknown function between two facing individuals involves swaying the head with the bill held high and the tail splayed.

Breeding Season Timing

The breeding season falls in the pre-Monsoon dry period, from February to June.

Nesting Site

The rufous woodpecker is best known for building its nest inside the nest of acrobat ants (Crematogaster). Both the male and female participate in excavating the nest.

Nesting Period Characteristics

Their feathers, especially when nesting, are reportedly covered in a dark, smelly sticky fluid, and dead ants are often found stuck to this fluid. The clutch consists of two white, matt, thin-shelled, translucent eggs.

Incubation and Parental Care

The incubation period lasts 12 to 14 days. Both parents feed the young at the nest, though a 19th-century observer noted that his Indian field assistants, who called the bird "lal sutar" meaning red carpenter, believed adults left the young to get ants to feed themselves.

Moulting Period

Moulting mainly occurs from September to November.

Parasite Records

The bird louse species Penenirmus auritus has been recorded on this woodpecker in Thailand.

Habitat Adaptability

The species has a wide habitat range; in Malaysia, it has been found to persist even in areas where swamp forests have been cleared and replaced by oil palm plantations.

Habitat Elevation Range

Its habitat is mainly located in plains and lower hills, mostly below 3000 m.

Conservation Status

This species is not considered threatened on the IUCN Red List.