The Red-backed flameback, Lesser Sri Lanka flameback, Sri Lanka red-backed woodpecker or Ceylon red-backed woodpecker (Dinopium psarodes) is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is endemic to Sri Lanka, only absent in the far-north. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the Black-rumped flameback.
It has been considered an endemic species since the time of Legge. It was first placed in the genus Brachypternus as Brachypternus ceylonus. It was later lumped as subspecies of the Black-rumped flameback (Dinopium benghalense), as Dinopium benghalense psarodes. It was elevated to full species status in a study by Sampath S. Seneviratne, Darren E. Irwin, and Saminda P. Fernando.
In this study, it was found to hybridize with the Black-rumped flameback. The hybridization is concentrated north of a border from Trincomalee to the base of Puttalam lagoon and south of a border from Mullaitivu to Mannar.] Hybridization is less out of this border, where the Black-rumped flameback dominates north of the border while the Red-backed flameback dominates south of the border. It is a case of Hybrid inferiority, in which the pure species are more successful than the hybrids.
It is one of the three species of red coloured flamebacks which are found only in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. It is also the only red-coloured Dinopium species. The other Red flamebacks are the Crimson-backed flameback (Chrysocolaptes stricklandi) of Sri Lanka, and the Luzon flameback (Chrysocolaptes haematribon) of the Philippines (Except for the Yellow-faced flameback (Chrysocolaptes xanthocephalus), but it is mostly yellow.) This analogous trait (a trait shared by two organisms by convergent evolution, which means that they evolved to be similar independently because of similar evolutionary pressures) suggests that some evolutionary pressure in Sri Lanka and the Philippines caused their endemic flamebacks to become red. No subspecies are recognized.
