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 Fraser in 1843 under the binomial name Halcyon leucogaster.^[2][3]

White-bellied kingfisher
Corythornis leucogaster bowdleri, Ghana
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Coraciiformes
Family:	Alcedinidae
Subfamily:	Alcedininae
Genus:	Corythornis
Species:	C. leucogaster
Binomial name
Corythornis leucogaster (Fraser, 1843)
Synonyms
Alcedo leucogaster

There are three subspecies:^[4]

• Corythornis leucogaster bowdleri (Neumann, 1908) – Guinea to Mali and Ghana
• Corythornis leucogaster leucogaster (Fraser, 1843) – Nigeria to north west Angola, Bioko Island
• Corythornis leucogaster leopoldi (Dubois, AJC, 1905) – east Congo to south Uganda and northwest Zambia

The white-bellied kingfisher is 13 cm (5.1 in) in length with a weight of around 14.5 g (0.51 oz). It has ultramarine upperparts and a red bill. The underparts are rufous-chestnut apart from a central white band. The sexes are alike.^[5]