Identification
A small kingfisher with bright azure-blue upperparts and a gleaming white underside. Female shows a diagnostic blue chest band. Male is entirely white underneath with a white collar. White wing patches visible in flight. Juveniles has rufous spot beside bill and rufous collar and flanks. Typically found in pairs in open wooded country, plantations, degraded forest and forest edge in the lowlands and foothills, avoiding dense forest. Male lacks green tones above and has an all-dark bill, unlike the larger Collared Kingfisher. Call is a short, strident “rit-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-rit.”