The white-bellied kingfisher (''Corythornis leucogaster'') is a species of

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

in the subfamily

Alcedininae The river kingfishers or pygmy kingfishers, subfamily Alcedininae, are one of the three subfamilies of kingfishers. The river kingfishers are widespread through Africa and east and south Asia as far as Australia, with one species, the common kin ...

that occurs in parts of equatorial west Africa. The first formal description of the species was by the British zoologist

Louis Fraser Louis Fraser (1819 – c. 1883) was a British Zoology, zoologist and collector. In his early years, Fraser was curator of the Museum of the Zoological Society of London. Little is known about Fraser's early life. He was born in 1819 or 1820 and mar ...

in 1843 under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Halcyon leucogaster''. There are three

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

: * ''C. l. bowdleri'' ( Neumann, 1908) – Guinea to Mali and Ghana * ''C. l. leucogaster'' (Fraser, 1843) – Nigeria to north west Angola,

Bioko Island Bioko (; historically Fernando Po; bvb, Ëtulá Ëria) is an island off the west coast of Africa and the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea. Its population was 335,048 at the 2015 census and it covers an area of . The island is located of ...

* ''C. l. leopoldi'' ( Dubois, AJC, 1905) – east Congo to south Uganda and northwest Zambia The white-bellied kingfisher is in length with a weight of around . It has ultramarine upperparts and a red bill. The underparts are rufous-chestnut apart from a central white band. The sexes are alike.

References

white-bellied kingfisher The white-bellied kingfisher (''Corythornis leucogaster'') is a species of kingfisher in the subfamily Alcedininae that occurs in parts of equatorial west Africa. The first formal description of the species was by the British zoologist Louis Fras ...

Birds of the African tropical rainforest Birds of the Gulf of Guinea

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Coraciiformes-stub