White-throated Kingfisher: how to recognise it
A bird of Africa and Asia. Learn the marks that make it easy to identify, then practise with real photographs in Lore.
Practise with real photosAll species guides
Photo © Matthew Smith · CC BY-NC-SA · iNaturalist · all photo credits
- Scientific name
- Halcyon smyrnensis
- Family
- Kingfishers
- Size
- About 28 cm
- Habitat
- Farmland, ponds, gardens and open woodland
- Found in
- Africa and Asia
The key marks
Chocolate-brown head and belly, a white throat and breast, a bright turquoise back, and a heavy red bill and red legs. Stork-billed Kingfisher is larger, with a much heavier red bill, a dull brown head and buff underparts.
Voice
A loud, rattling, laughing call, often from an open perch.
Good to know
It often hunts far from water, striking from a perch at lizards, frogs and large insects.
Do not confuse with
Compare it with the Stork-billed Kingfisher. Look at the marks above one by one rather than the overall colour, and practise telling the two apart with real photos.
Where and when
You can expect to find it in farmland, ponds, gardens and open woodland. It is especially common in Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Israel. Distribution changes with the seasons and from year to year, so check a recent local observation source before you go looking.