Shining-blue Kingfisher Alcedo quadribrachys Scientific name definitions

16 cm; male 33–36 g, female 32–40 g. Male nominate race buffy loral spot, cream neck patch, head and wings black with glossy ultramarine tips, mantle to uppertail-coverts brilliant purple-blue, tail blue-black; creamy chin and throat, small purple-blue collar at side of breast, remaining underparts orange-chestnut; bill black; iris dark brown; legs and feet orange-red. Female dark red base of lower mandible. Juvenile paler crown, paler orange underparts, dusky mottling forming breastband, white tip of bill. Race <em>guentheri</em> paler back colour, brilliant cobalt-blue, pale azure-blue rump.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Mainly fish to 6 cm in length, also aquatic insect larvae and small crabs. Searches for prey from a perch in reeds or overhanging branches, 1–2 m above the water; dives steeply into water and return to perch with its catch.

High-pitched “cheet” given mainly in flight, and repeated high-pitched “seet-seet-seet-seet”; nestlings make fizzling noise when alarmed.