Collared Kingfisher

The collared kingfisher, also known as the white-collared, black-masked or mangrove kingfisher, is a medium-sized tree kingfisher 23–25 cm long, with males weighing 51–90 g and females 54–100 g. It varies from blue to green above with white or buff underparts and a white collar round the neck. It has a wide range from the Red Sea across southern Asia to Melanesia, and several subspecies occur locally around the coasts of India and Bangladesh and on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Wikipedia, general species account).

The most typical call is a loud, harsh, metallic kee-kee-kee repeated several times, and calls vary geographically. A clutch is usually two to five rounded whitish eggs laid directly on the floor of the burrow with no nest material; both parents incubate and feed the chicks, which leave the nest about 44 days after hatching. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a resident of forest that eats invertebrates, with a Restricted range of about 17,600 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).