BANDED KINGFISHER

Photographed at Dong Nai Nature Reserve, Vietnam, May 2024.

  1343                 BANDED KINGFISHER                     Lacedo pulchella

VIETNAM                   7

The banded kingfisher (Lacedo pulchella) is a tree kingfisher found in lowland tropical forests of southeast Asia. It is the only member of the genus Lacedo. Male and female adults are very different in plumage. The male has a bright blue crown with black and blue banding on the back. The female has rufous and black banding on the head and upperparts. The species occurs in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and Brunei. It is extinct in Singapore. The banded kingfisher hunts large insects and occasionally small lizards, usually taken in the trees, but sometimes from the ground.