The Rufous WoodpeckerMicropternus brachyurus is a brown woodpecker found in South Asia. It is medium sized with black vermiculations on its rufous body and a dark eye stripe. The species has a weak and slightly curved bill. It builds its nests within the nests of ants of the species Crematogaster.
This species was usually placed in the South American genus Celeus, but it differed from these species in many aspects. DNA sequence analyses have confirmed that the Rufous Woodpecker should be placed in the monotypic genus Micropternus. Its closest relatives seem to be the enigmatic woodpeckers of the genus Meiglyptes and possibly Hemicircus (Benz et al., 2006)
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