Blue-eared Kingfisher

How to identify

Field marks

1. Adult: ear-coverts blue, with no rufous ear stripe
2. Upperparts cobalt-blue, deeper and richer
3. Underparts richer rufous
4. Crown darker

Male, female and young

Adult male has an entirely dark bill; female has a reddish lower mandible; juvenile has rufous ear-coverts, usually mottled throat and upper breast, and a reddish bill with a whitish tip.

Similar species

Common Kingfisher

Adult has blue ear-coverts, deeper, richer cobalt-blue upperparts, and richer rufous underparts; Common Kingfisher has a rufous ear stripe.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: March and July–August · Most records: Malaysia, Singapore, India

Blue-eared Kingfisher has been recorded at 264 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 12 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Sepilok – Rainforest Discovery CenterMalaysia965 records
2. Kinabatangan River – SukauMalaysia817 records
3. Menanggol RiverMalaysia503 records

Countries and regions with the most records

MalaysiaSingaporeIndiaIndonesiaThailandPhilippinesVietnamNepal

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The blue-eared kingfisher (Alcedo meninting) is found in Asia, ranging across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is found mainly in dense shaded forests where it hunts in small streams. It is darker crowned, with darker rufous underparts and lacking the rufous ear stripe of the common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) which is found in more open habitats.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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